Barnard's star

American

[bahr-nerdz] / ˈbɑr nərdz /

noun

a red dwarf star of magnitude 9.5 in the constellation Ophiuchus, having the largest known proper motion and being the nearest star to earth (5.9 light-years) beyond the Alpha Centauri system.

Barnard's star British

noun

a red dwarf star in the constellation Ophiuchus having the largest proper motion known

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Barnard's star Scientific

/ bär′nərdz /

A dim, main-sequence red dwarf in the constellation Ophiuchus that is the second nearest star to Earth after the Alpha-Centauri system. Although it is only 5.98 light-years from our solar system, it is too faint to be seen with the unaided eye. Barnard's star has a greater proper motion (movement with respect to the background stars that is caused by an object's own motion rather than by how it is viewed from Earth) than any other star. Barnard's star is named for its identifier, American astronomer Edward Emerson Barnard (1857–1923).

Etymology

Origin of Barnard's star

After Edward E. Barnard (1857–1923), American astronomer, its discoverer

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

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Barnard's star

Barnard’s star, named after the astronomer, is a red dwarf floating in our Solar System’s neighbourhood.

From Space Scoop ● Apr. 23, 2025

After carefully observing and studying the data from the instrument for more than 3 years, the team found solid evidence of four exoplanets around Barnard's star.

From Space Scoop ● Apr. 23, 2025

Newly discovered by astronomers publishing for the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics, Barnard b orbits the closest solo star to our own solar system, known as Barnard's star.

From Salon ● Oct. 4, 2024

Astronomers have found a planet orbiting Barnard's star - one of the closest to the Sun.

From BBC ● Nov. 15, 2018

The third star is Barnard's star with M = 11.7, both being, together with α Centauri, also the nearest of all known stars.

From Lectures on Stellar Statistics by Carl Vilhelm Ludvig Charlier

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023