Astronomers have been looking for exoplanets orbiting Barnard's Star, the nearest solitary star to Earth at just 5.96 light-years away, since its discovery in 1916. Unconvincing signs of planets in the lonely star's orbit have been reported previously,

Barnard’s Star is our cosmic neighbor, and yet we know so little about it,” said Ritvik Basant, Ph.D student at the University of Chicago