Explore the Universe. Understand Everything In It.
★
Menu
Home Tonight's Sky News
Explore Solar System PlanetsMoons StarsExoplanets GalaxiesBlack Holes NebulaeAsteroids & Comets Constellations Space Exploration Space Industry
Sky Astronomy Calendar Launches
Learn & Tools Start Learning Astrophysics Scale of the Universe Timeline Glossary A–Z People Young Astronomers Top Lists Tools Compare Worlds Ask the Atlas AI Agents API
About About us Methodology Contact

Guided View
New to astronomy? We explain every term as you browse, in plain English. Same pages, with the help built in.

Expert View
You know the sky. Just the content, clean and compact, with no extra explanations. This is the default view.

Interface language
Light mode
Barnard's Star The Sun
Surface temperature
3,690 K
Radius
0.05 × the Sun
Luminosity
0.000 × the Sun
Spectral type
sdM4
Diagram, not a photograph. Colour from the star’s measured colour index; size from its luminosity and temperature, drawn to one scale with the Sun. Source: HYG stellar database.

Cataloged star · Database record + computed analysis

Barnard's Star

HIP 87937

A real star from the HYG catalog in the constellation Ophiuchus.

5.9 light-years away Apparent magnitude 9.54

S-type star

Its spectral type is sdM4: an evolved giant with exotic chemistry between M and carbon types. From its measured color, its surface temperature is roughly 3,691 K (3,418 °C), an estimate computed from the catalog's color index.

How far away is it?

It lies 5.9 light-years away (1.82 parsecs, from its measured parallax), within the Sun's wider neighborhood; its light is only 5.9 years old when it reaches your eye.

How powerful is it?

Its computed luminosity is only 0.000443 of the Sun's output, a modest lamp by stellar standards (derived from its brightness and distance).

Can you see it?

At apparent magnitude 9.54, it is a telescope target only. It is visible from both hemispheres.

It varies

This is a catalogued variable star (V2500): its brightness measurably changes over time, whether by pulsation, eclipses in a double system, or surface activity.

Everything above is computed from the catalog’s measured values for this star. Where a value is missing, the statement is omitted rather than guessed.

About this record

Data: the HYG stellar database v4.1 (Hipparcos + Yale + Gliese, CC BY-SA, © David Nash / astronexus). Want the full stories? Our deep star guides cover Sirius, Betelgeuse, Proxima Centauri, Vega and three dozen more. You can also browse the catalog or learn how stars live and die.