Red Dots Campaign

The Red Dots Campaign is an effort by astronomers to search for exoplanets around nearby red dwarf stars. The project launched in 2017, following the Pale Red Dot campaign which discovered Proxima Centauri b.[1] The Arecibo Observatory, the National Science Foundation and the Planetary Habitability Laboratory of the University of Puerto Rico are the main participating institutions.[2] The initial targets were Proxima Centauri, Barnard's Star, and Ross 154;[1] Barnard's Star, the second-closest star system to the Solar System, has long been the subject of intense interest.[2][3]

Barnard's Star is among the most studied red dwarfs because of its proximity and favorable location for observation near the celestial equator. It has the highest proper motion of any known star relative to the Sun. The possibility of planets was first proposed by Peter van de Kamp, rejected after peer review, and then revived since the advent of new planet-hunting techniques. Doppler monitoring has been the most recent tactic deployed with the nearby star.[4] The Red Dots campaign detected a candidate super-Earth around this star in 2018,[5] but this was rejected by subsequent studies.[6] Instead, a system of four small planets has since been confirmed.[7]

Other results of the Red Dots campaign include the discovery of multi-planetary systems around GJ 1061[8][9] and Gliese 887,[10][11] both including planets in the habitable zone. Red Dots observations were used to place limits on additional (undetected) planets around Gliese 832, Gliese 674, and Ross 128, each previously known to host a single planet.[12]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Red Dots: The Live Search for Terrestrial Planets around Proxima Centauri Continues". ESO. 19 June 2017. Retrieved 2 March 2026.
  2. ^ a b "Red Dots Campaign Hunts Planets at Nearby Barnard's Star". Space.com. Retrieved February 18, 2026.
  3. ^ "Dreaming Peter van de Kamp's dream". Red Dots. 18 July 2017. Archived from the original on 16 July 2019.
  4. ^ Choi, Jieun; McCarthy, Chris; Marcy, Geoffrey W; Howard, Andrew W; Fischer, Debra A; Johnson, John A; Isaacson, Howard; Wright, Jason T (2012). "Precise Doppler Monitoring of Barnard's Star". The Astrophysical Journal. 764 (2): 131. arXiv:1208.2273. Bibcode:2013ApJ...764..131C. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/764/2/131. S2CID 29053334.
  5. ^ Ribas, I.; Tuomi, M.; et al. (November 2018). "A candidate super-Earth planet orbiting near the snow line of Barnard's star". Nature. 563 (7731): 365–368. arXiv:1811.05955. Bibcode:2018Natur.563..365R. doi:10.1038/s41586-018-0677-y. PMID 30429552.
  6. ^ González Hernández, J. I.; Suárez Mascareño, A.; et al. (October 2024). "A sub-Earth-mass planet orbiting Barnard's star". Astronomy & Astrophysics. 690: A79. arXiv:2410.00569. Bibcode:2024A&A...690A..79G. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202451311.
  7. ^ Basant, Ritvik; Luque, Rafael; et al. (March 2025). "Four Sub-Earth Planets Orbiting Barnard's Star from MAROON-X and ESPRESSO". The Astrophysical Journal Letters. 982 (1): L1. arXiv:2503.08095. Bibcode:2025ApJ...982L...1B. doi:10.3847/2041-8213/adb8d5.
  8. ^ Dreizler, S.; Jeffers, S. V.; et al. (March 2020). "RedDots: a temperate 1.5 Earth-mass planet candidate in a compact multiterrestrial planet system around GJ 1061". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 493 (1): 536–550. arXiv:1908.04717. Bibcode:2020MNRAS.493..536D. doi:10.1093/mnras/staa248.
  9. ^ Dreizler, S.; Jeffers, S. V.; et al. (June 2025). "RedDots: Planetary masses in the GJ 1061 system from planet-planet interaction". Astronomy & Astrophysics. 698: A114. arXiv:2504.10926. Bibcode:2025A&A...698A.114D. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202452490.
  10. ^ Jeffers, S. V.; Dreizler, S.; et al. (June 2020). "A multiplanet system of super-Earths orbiting the brightest red dwarf star GJ 887". Science. 368 (6498): 1477–1481. arXiv:2006.16372. Bibcode:2020Sci...368.1477J. doi:10.1126/science.aaz0795.
  11. ^ Hartogh, C.; Jeffers, S. V.; et al. (January 2026). "RedDots: Multiplanet system around M dwarf GJ 887 in the solar neighborhood". Astronomy & Astrophysics. arXiv:2602.08929. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202554984.
  12. ^ Liebing, F.; Jeffers, S. V.; et al. (October 2024). "RedDots: Limits on habitable and undetected planets orbiting nearby stars GJ 832, GJ 674, and Ross 128". Astronomy & Astrophysics. 690: A234. arXiv:2409.01173. Bibcode:2024A&A...690A.234L. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202347902.
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