Wow:Scientists discover bigger, colder ‘super Earth’

A “super Earth” has been discovered orbiting the closest single star to our Sun, scientists said on Wednesday in a breakthrough that could shine a light on Earth’s nearest planetary neighbours.
Astronomers studied Barnard’s Star, a red dwarf just six light years away — practically in our back garden, galactically speaking — and noticed the presence of a “frozen, dimly lit world” at least 3.2 times heavier than Earth.

The planet, known for now as Barnard’s Star b, is the second nearest to Earth outside the solar system and orbits its host star once every 233 days.

“It’s important because it’s really our nextdoor neighbour and we like to meet our neighbours in general,” Ignasi Ribas, from the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia and Spain’s Institute of Space Sciences, told AFP.