Gliese 876

Gliese 876 (pronounced ɡli ː also Gl 876 or GJ 876 zə short) is a star in the constellation of Aquarius and is 15 light years from Earth. He is a red dwarf of spectral type M4 V: Be diameter is about a third of the sun. It is orbited by at least three exoplanets, two of which are Jupiter-like gas giant.

Planet

The first exoplanet around Gl 876 was discovered in 1998 by Geoffrey Marcy and colleagues, the second in January of 2001 These two planets have 0.6 and 1.8 Jupiter masses and their orbital periods amounted to 30.1 and 60.7 days (2. : 1- resonance).

The third, very far inside circular companion was discovered in June 2005 and was, until the discovery of Gliese 581 c in April 2007, the smallest known planet outside the solar system. Its orbital period is less than two days and its temperature is estimated at 200 to 400 ° C. Its orbital radius is about three million kilometers, about one- twentieth of the orbital radius of Mercury.