"Barnard b is one of the lowest-mass exoplanets known and one of the few known with a mass less than that of Earth. But the planet is too close to the host star, closer than the habitable zone. Even if the star is about 2500 degrees cooler than our Sun, it is too hot there to maintain liquid water on the surface."
"The findings, as detailed in a study published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, mark the first confirmed detection of a planet orbiting Barnard's star, making it one of the closest known exoplanets to Earth overall."
"To pick out Barnard b, the researchers used an instrument on the Very Large Telescope called the Echelle Spectrograph for Rocky Exoplanet- and Stable Spectroscopic Observations, or ESPRESSO for short. Rather than observe the exoplanet directly, the scientists used ESPRESSO to look for a 'wobble' in the host star caused by the gravitational pull of an orbiting body - an approach ideal for detecting planets very tight to their stars, like this one."
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