Barnard’s Star, The "Great White Whale" of Planet Hunting, Has Surrendered Its Secret

  Astronomers have found that Barnard's star -- a very close, fast-moving, and long studied red dwarf -- has a super-Earth sized planet orbiting just beyond its habitable zone. The discovery relied on data collected over many years using the tried-and-true radial velocity method, which searches for wobbles in the movement of the host star. …