Reading SF as a kid, I recalled Barnard’s Star being tagged as one of the closest local systems sporting alien civilization, or at least off-world life. Now, a couple of scientists posit that ol’ Barnard’s just might harbor some actual living critters, if only of the microbial sort.
The system’s planet, Barnard’s star b, is an icy super-earth circling its cool red dwarf star in an orbit closer than Mercury’s distance from our earthly sun. But the red dwarf is much less intense than our Sol, so the exoplanet is basically deep-freezed – at least on the surface. But since the planet is three times earth’s mass, they also posit a heat-generating core, and of course what you have then is the possibility of a large, toasty warm under-ice ocean. And in the comfy waters: single celled life, or Barnard’s endearingly wiggly equivalent.
While we’re unlikely ever to know if this is true in any of our life times, it’s still a cool thought…. and yet one more SF prophecy made real. Or kinda sorta real. Or real enough to merit a blog post. So there’s that…
And here, an artist’s impression of Barnard’s star b, in all its ice-queen majesty.
