Overview
- The study, published Monday, October 12, 2026 in The Astrophysical Journal, combined roughly a century of radial-velocity measurements with extensive numerical simulations to map where planets could survive.
- Researchers injected fake planet signals and ran 2,000 orbital tests that each evolved for 10 million years to show that Earth-mass, S-type orbits can remain stable inside the primary star’s habitable zone.
- The team ruled out Jupiter-mass or larger planets out to about 5 astronomical units from the primary star and traced an 1855 claimed detection to stellar activity rather than a gas giant.
- No planets are confirmed in 70 Ophiuchi and rocky worlds would be below current detection limits because existing radial-velocity data cannot reliably find Earth-mass planets at this system’s distances.
- At 16 light-years and with two long-lived K-type stars, 70 Ophiuchi now ranks as a nearby target for direct imaging and higher-precision radial-velocity campaigns and could broaden searches to more binary systems.