Gliese 876 d

Gliese 876 d is an extrasolar planet that orbits the 876 about 15 light years distant red dwarf Gliese in less than 2 days. By the time estimated 7.5 Earth masses, Gliese 876 d was at the time of its discovery in June 2005 of the exoplanet with the smallest minimum mass, orbiting the pulsar PSR B1257 not 12. He is the innermost known planet of its planetary system.

Discovery

As the majority of the discovery time ( 2005) was also known exoplanets this using the radial velocity method discovered. At that time it was already known that Gliese 876 d still had two more planets, Gliese 876 b and Gliese 876 c, which interact in a 2:1 orbital resonance with each other. The exoplanet was discovered by a team led by Eugenio Rivera.

Circulation and mass

The planet orbits its star at a distance of about 0.0208 astronomical units and has a minimum mass of about 5.881 Earth masses or 0.0185 Jupiter masses.

Climate and composition

It is estimated that there is on the planet has a surface temperature of about 650 K ( close to 400 ° C). If the actual mass does not significantly exceed the derived from the observational data minimum mass, it is plausible that it is a terrestrial planet with a radius of roughly 10,000 km. Maybe the planet has a silicate core.