Barnard’s Star is a faint red dwarf in Ophiuchus that crosses the sky faster than any other star, and the nearest single star to the Sun.
At a glance
| type | red dwarf (class M) |
|---|---|
| distance from the Sun | 5.96 light-years (1.83 pc) |
| its light left it | 5.96 years ago |
| luminosity | 0.0035 × the Sun |
| radius | 0.19 × the Sun |
| surface temperature | 3,130 K |
Read off the piece’s own catalogue, the same values it draws with.
About Barnard's Star
Barnard’s Star is an old, quiet red dwarf, too faint to see without a telescope. What made it famous is its motion: it drifts across the sky faster than any other star, shifting against the background stars noticeably within a few years. E. E. Barnard measured that motion with photographic plates, and the star has carried his name since. Part of the speed is its closeness; part is a genuinely fast path through the Galaxy.
It has a long history in the search for planets. For many years Peter van de Kamp claimed it wobbled under the pull of giant planets, a result that faded once the measurements were shown to come from changes to the telescope. Recently, with spectrographs sensitive enough to see far smaller tugs, astronomers have found several small rocky planets orbiting very close to it.
Because it is old and spins slowly, it flares far less than young red dwarfs like Proxima, which made it a favoured target for long, careful searches. Its age also makes it a useful contrast with the young, restless red dwarfs: it shows what such a star settles into over a very long life.
What you see in the piece
Fly to it and you find a dim orange-red disc with a few spots and only rare flares, its catalogued planets circling close in. In HUMAN EYE it is not visible, even though it is among the closest stars.
Measured or modelled
The planets now known are small and orbit too close to the star to be temperate.
Questions
Why is Barnard’s Star famous?
It has the largest motion across the sky of any star, and at 5.96 light-years (1.83 pc) it is the nearest single star to the Sun.
Can you see Barnard’s Star without a telescope?
No. It is a red dwarf with a luminosity of 0.0035 × the Sun, too faint for the eye.