51 Pegasi

 

 

Distance from Earth:

6 light years

Star name, type:

Barnard's Star, very dim red dwarf M3V

Star mass, radii:

0.17, 0.17 x Sol

Notes:

our second closest star

Hypothetical planet location:

0.02 AU

Possible life:

less than 5%

 

Image description: Actually this is a tribute to Peter van de Kamp (1901-1995) who spent most of his life examining this star and possible planets around it. Although the planets he "found" were never confirmed, his work and devotion for his job probably inspired many new "planet hunters". Today we know that there are no Jupiter sized planets orbiting this star, but planets with lower mass are not excluded.

 

As seen in table above, our planet in habitable zone should orbit the star at the distance of 0.02 AU. This would probably made the planet to be tidally locked, which means that one side of the planet would always be "day" and the other would be "night". Orbiting at speed of 85,6 km/s, Mercury sized planet would finish one orbit (it's year would last) in 3 days 9 hours.