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Joined 8 months ago
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Cake day: July 17th, 2024

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  • Just 6 light-years away, Barnard’s Star is a well-studied 10-billion-year-old M dwarf with a mass of 0.16 solar mass. Finding exoplanets around Barnard’s Star has been something of a white whale for astronomers for more than half a century; starting in the 1960s, researchers have claimed to have spotted various planets around Barnard’s Star, from distant Jupiter-mass companions to close-in super-Earths. Each of these claims has been refuted.

    Now, the white whale appears to have been caught at last. Just last November, researchers reported the discovery of a planet orbiting Barnard’s Star with a period of 3.154 days. The data hinted at the presence of three other planets, but these candidates could not be confirmed. In a new research article published today, Ritvik Basant (University of Chicago) and collaborators leveraged years of data to confirm that Barnard’s Star hosts not just one, but four planets.




  • The party has since gone from strength to strength and in February topped a YouGov poll of voting intentions on 27 per cent, two points ahead of Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s ruling Labour party.

    Bookmakers have even made arch-Eurosceptic Mr Farage favourite to be Britain’s next leader, although the next election is likely in 2029 and the UK’s voting system disadvantages smaller parties.

    fuck me I didn’t realise it was this bad