The Barnard’s Star planetary system: stability, composition, and evolution of four sub-Earth exoplanets

Barnard’s Star is the nearest single star to the Sun ($1.8\, \text{pc}$), and hosts four recently discovered planets. The star also has well-characterized stellar abundances of important rock-forming elements, including Fe, Mg, and Si. For refractory elements like these, the planets have likely inherited similar bulk elemental abundance ratios to the star, facilitating modelling of their interior structures. We present here an analysis of the Barnard’s Star planetary system on several fronts. We perform a detailed stability analysis of the system, ascertaining that all four planets likely have masses between 0.19 and 0.84 $\mathrm{ M}_{\oplus }$, and are likely tidally locked, whereas a 4:3 mean-motion resonance chain for the inner three planets cannot be ruled out. Using atmospheric evolution models, we show that the prospect of extant primary atmospheres is highly unlikely on any of the planets. Barnard’s Star’s abnormally high Mg/Si ratio and low Th/Mg ratio imply planetary mantles which (a) are rich in (Mg,Fe)O ferropericlase; (b) have less than half the water capacity as Earth; (c) generate about half of the radiogenic heating as Earth; and (d) are cool and unlikely to have outgassed secondary atmospheres. Our analysis of this system presents an accessible set of first steps for the study of other nearby exoplanetary systems, as well as sub-Earth planets which will be increasingly discovered over the coming years.