An international scientific team, with the participation of researchers from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), has found a new world similar in size to our planet orbiting an ultra-cold red dwarf located about 55 light-years away. Observations from the SPECULOOS telescope network, which includes the ARTEMIS telescope at the Teide Observatory in Tenerife, have made this discovery possible. The Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC), at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on La Palma, has also played a key role in confirming the discovery, providing some of the most accurate ground

The Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) is hosting during this week the Second SONG Scientific Conference, which brings to an end the first decade of high level studies with this international network designed to study the interiors of the stars and the planetary systems which orbit them.

The single star nearest to the Sun is called Barnard’s star. A team of researchers led by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), has recently detected a ‘sub-Earth’ orbiting it. This exoplanet, called Barnard b has at least half the mass of Venus and orbits rapidly around its star, so that its year lasts only a little over three Earth days. This new exoplanet is sixteen times nearer to Barnard’d star than Mercury is to the Sun, and has a surface temperature close to 125oC, so it does not have liquid water on its surface. This discovery, led by the IAC in collaboration with a number