Ross 128 is a quiet red dwarf in Virgo with a temperate, roughly Earth-mass planet, and it is drifting towards the Sun.
At a glance
| type | red dwarf (class M) |
|---|---|
| distance from the Sun | 11 light-years (3.38 pc) |
| its light left it | 11 years ago |
| luminosity | 0.0036 × the Sun |
| radius | 0.2 × the Sun |
| surface temperature | 3,190 K |
Read off the piece’s own catalogue, the same values it draws with.
About Ross 128
Ross 128 is a red dwarf, too faint for the naked eye, catalogued by Frank Ross among stars with large motions across the sky. Unlike many of its neighbours it is calm: it flares rarely, which makes it one of the gentler red dwarfs to orbit.
Its planet, Ross 128 b, was found from the faint wobble it causes in the star, measured with the HARPS spectrograph in Chile. It has at least the mass of the Earth and orbits close in, but because the star is so dim, the planet receives an amount of light not far from what the Earth receives from the Sun. The star is moving towards us and will, in the distant future, become for a time the nearest star to the Sun.
What you see in the piece
Fly to it and its planet appears on its measured orbit around a dull orange-red disc; press O to see the orbit. From Earth, in HUMAN EYE, nothing shows in this part of Virgo.
Measured or modelled
Whether Ross 128 b has an atmosphere, and so whether it is truly temperate, is not known; its mass is a lower limit.
Questions
Does Ross 128 have a habitable planet?
Ross 128 b receives a similar amount of light to the Earth, but whether it is habitable is unknown. The star is 11 light-years (3.38 pc) away.