Barren planets are tier 1-6 vanilla planets. Their surface is completely lifeless (no trees, no monsters, no crops), but they can have monsters deep underground.
They are considered to be good for building, but are rather boring otherwise. Their underground layers have Burrowers (removable with microformers), so if a planet is Small or Medium, they may start bothering your town on the surface.
You might want to visit Tabula Rasa instead - these planets also don't have monsters, but are green and full of plant life.
Variants
Barren planet can have either Barren (see below), or Barren II, or Barren III as its primary biome. They have different blocks.
Details
Name: Barren
Tier: 1 - 6.4
Found around stars: Gentle Star, Temperate Star, Radioactive Star, Frozen Star, Fiery Star, Binary Star, Red Star, Blue Star, Dying Star