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Barnard's Star
Sign in to saveAlso known as Proxima Ophiuchi, GJ 699, V2500 Ophiuchi, Barnard's Runaway Star, Greyhound of the Skies, HIP 87937, LFT 1385, LHS 57
red dwarf star in the constellation of Ophiuchus
Barnard's Star is a small, dim red dwarf star located in the constellation Ophiuchus that is one of the closest stars to our Sun. Astronomers find it particularly interesting because its proximity to Earth makes it a natural target for studying nearby stellar systems and searching for planets that might orbit it.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
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Encyclopedic overview
Barnard's Star is a small red dwarf star in the constellation of Ophiuchus. At a distance of 5.96 light-years (1.83 pc) from Earth, it is the fourth-nearest-known individual star to the Sun after the three components of the Alpha Centauri system, and is the closest star in the northern celestial hemisphere. Its stellar mass is about 16% of the Sun's, and it has 19% of the Sun's diameter. Despite its proximity, the star has a dim apparent visual magnitude of +9.5 and is invisible to the unaided eye; it is much brighter in the infrared than in visible light.
Barnard's Star is among the most studied red dwarfs because of its proximity and favorable location for observation near the celestial equator. Historically, research on Barnard's Star has focused on measuring its stellar characteristics, its astrometry, and also refining the limits of possible extrasolar planets. Although Barnard's Star is ancient, it still experiences stellar flare events, one being observed in 1998.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Barnard's Star” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.