the specified orbital parameters would be highly unstable. The claims by Jacob and See have both been shown to be erroneous. Discovery of a "third dark companion" was announced by Louis Berman in 1932. This "dark body" around 70 Oph A was thought to have an 18-year period and a mass of 0.1 to 0.2 the Sun's mass. A claim of a planetary system was again made, this time by Dirk Reuyl and Erik Holberg in 1943. The companion was estimated to have a mass 0.008 to 0.012 that of the Sun and a 17-year period. This caused quite a sensation at the time but later observations have gradually discredited this claim. The negative results of past studies does not completely rule out the possibility of planets. In 2006 a McDonald Observatory team set limits to the presence of one or more planets around 70 Ophiuchi with masses between 0.46 and 12.8 Jupiter masses and average separations spanning between 0.05 and 5.2 AU. See also 61 Cygni Barnard's Star List of the nearest stars References External links Detection Limits from the McDonald Observatory Planet Search Program Binary stars Ophiuchi, 70 Ophiuchus (constellation) K-type main-sequence stars Ophiuchi, 70 0702 Ophiuchi, V2391 165341 088601 6752 Ophiuchi, p Durchmusterung objects Hypothetical planetary systems