Star about six light-years away from the Sun, next nearest the Sun after the Alpha Centauri system, in the constellation Ophiuchus.
Named for Edward Emerson Barnard (b. 1857
d. 1923), who discovered it in 1916, it has the largest proper motion of any known star. It is gradually nearing the solar system. The star attracted astronomers' attention in the 1960s when its proper motion was claimed to show periodic deviations attributed to the gravitational pull of two planets (see planets of other stars ). The deviations were later proved to be artifacts of measurement.