Special Sub-Topic: Barnard's star Click Here To Play: Barnard's star

Barnard's star is the closest star to us in the northern hemisphere of the sky.

t. Recent Hubble Space Telescope measurements places it at 5.98 light years away from us. That's about 35 trillion miles away!

What type of star is Barnard's star?

Red subdwarf. There are only a handful of red subdwarf stars known. Since they are relatively faint, we only know about the ones that are near us in space. These stars have very low metal content since they formed early in the galaxy. Barnard's star is not believed to have any planets. If Barnard's star were to replace our Sun, the surface of the Earth would be completely frozen, since the energy output of Barnard's star is so feeble.

Is Barnard's star visible to the naked eye since it is so close to us?

n. At magnitude 9.56, it is way too faint to be seen by human eyes. The human eye can see to about 6.0 magnitude. A magnitude 1.0 star is 2.5 times brighter than a magnitude 2.0 star, etc. So a magnitude 6.0 star is about 100 times fainter than magnitude 1 star. Our Sun is actually a -23 magnitude star, as seen from Earth.

Is Barnard's star larger than our Sun?

n. It is only about 20% the diameter of our Sun, or about 140,000 miles in diameter. Our Sun is about 840,000 miles in diameter.

Barnard's star is a Population II star.

t. All stars are classified as either Population I or II. Population II stars are older, metal poor stars that are mostly found in the center bulge of the galaxy as well as in the halo. This is where we find most of the globular clusters as well. Population I stars are young stars mostly found in the disk of the galaxy. The disk stars formed later then the halo stars so they have a much higher abundance of metal.

Barnard's star is receding from our Sun.

f. It is approaching at 87 miles per second. It will be less than four light years away in about 8,000 years. It has the highest proper motion of any star. Proper motion is the speed at which a star seems to move in respect to us. Barnard's star moves at 10.3 seconds of arc a year.

Barnard's star is a relatively young star compared to our Sun.

f. Barnard's star is about eleven billion years old and will probably last another forty billion years. In comparison, our Sun is only 4.5 billion years old and will last about another 5 billion years. The more mass a star has the quicker it uses its fuel.

During July 1998, Barnard's star

flared.. A flare is when the spin of the red dwarf star generates a strong magnetic field. For Barnard's star, this case caused the temperature of the star, which is normally around 3,100 Kelvin, to reach at least 8,000 Kelvin (hotter than our Sun for about an hour). This is unusual for a star of this age, since its rotation is rather slow, at about 130 days.

In what constellation is Barnard's star?

Ophiuchus. Ophiuchus is the Serpent Bearer. Ophiuchus is the only constellation that splits another constellation in two, Serpens Cauda and Serpens Caput. Barnard's star is in the northern most region of the constellation.

From Barnard's star, our Sun would be a first magnitude star, but in what constellation?

Orion. Our Sun would appear to be on a line to the south east of the belt stars. The belt stars, from left to right, as we see them, are Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka. From Barnard's star, one would see the red giant Betelguese, the blue-white giant Rigel, and our yellow Sun, all in the same constellation, a rather colorful trio of stars.