Artist impression of 70 Vir b exoplanet
Confirmed Exoplanet Discovered 1996

70 Vir b

A gas giant orbiting the g-type yellow (sun-like) 70 Vir, located approximately 58.4 light-years from Earth.

Image: Wikimedia Commons · GPL · HeNRyKus

Key parameters at a glance

  • A radius of 12.60 Earth radii
  • A mass of 2,380.45 Earth masses
  • Surface gravity around 14.99 g
  • An orbital period of 116.688 days
  • Semi-major axis 0.4810 AU
  • Distance from Earth 58.39 light-years
  • Earth Similarity Index 0.422
  • Travel time at Voyager 1 speed 1,029,628 years

Context from the literature

70 Virginis b is an extrasolar planet approximately 60 light-years away in the constellation of Virgo. Announced in 1996 by Geoffrey Marcy and R. Paul Butler, 70 Virginis was one of the first stars confirmed to have planets orbiting it. When first announced, 70 Virginis b was considered to be within its star's habitable zone, but it was later confirmed that the planet has an eccentric orbit, closer to its parent.

Excerpted from Wikipedia · full article

70 Vir b Planet Profile

Physical Specs

Radius
12.60 R⊕
Radius (Jupiter)
1.130 R♃
Mass
2,380.45 M⊕
Mass (Jupiter)
7.490 M♃
Density
6.54 g/cm³
Surface Gravity
14.99 g (Earth)

Classification

Planet Type

Gas Giant

ESI Score 0.422
HZ Position Unknown
Controversial No

Discovery

Year 1996
Method Radial Velocity
Facility Lick Observatory
Telescope 3.0 m C. Donald Shane Telescope

Size rank in cohort

Rank by radius

#1179of 1771

top 66.5%

This planet

12.60R⊕

Gas Giant median

13.52R⊕

Nearest-size peers

Metric Earth 70 Vir b Jupiter
Radius (R⊕)1.0012.6011.21
Mass (M⊕)1.002,380.45317.83
Density (g/cm³)5.516.541.33
Surface Gravity (g)1.0014.992.53
Insolation (S⊕)1.000.037

Alternative Mass Estimates

Method Value Interpretation
Best measured mass 2,380.450 M⊕ Direct mass measurement (not derived).
Minimum mass (M sin i) 2,357.027 M⊕ Lower bound from radial-velocity fitting.

Star Catalogue Identifiers

HD

HD 117176

HIP

HIP 65721

TIC

TIC 95473936

Gaia DR2

Gaia DR2 3740176925743650688

Gaia DR3

Gaia DR3 3740176925743994752

System

70 Vir

Percentile among Gas Giant cohort

Radius 12.600 R⊕ · percentile 31 / cohort 1771
Mass 2,380.450 M⊕ · percentile 82 / cohort 1747
Orbital period 116.69 d · percentile 54 / cohort 1533
Distance 17.90 pc · percentile 3 / cohort 1759
ESI 0.422 · percentile 92 / cohort 1771

Orbit & Habitability

Orbital Dynamics

Period
116.688 days
Semi-major axis
0.4810 AU
Eccentricity
0.399
Inclination
°

Year Length

A year here lasts approximately 116.69 Earth days (31.9% of a terrestrial year) on a highly eccentric trajectory at a mean orbital distance of 0.4810 AU.

Extended Orbital Architecture

RV semi-amplitude (K)

316.200 m/s

Transit mid-time (BJD)

2,455,656.6820

Long. of periastron (ω)

359.83°

Angular separation (arcsec)

26.90000

Eq. Temperature

 

Insolation (S⊕)

Earth = 1.00

Earth Similarity (ESI)

0.422

0 = alien, 1 = Earth-identical

Discovery Paper

Primary reference

Marcy Butler 1996

Instrument

Hamilton Echelle Spectrograph

Publication

1996-06

Observation locale

Ground

Discovery cohort

Planets confirmed in 1996 at Lick Observatory (4 shown).

Host System: 70 Vir

Spectral Class

G-type yellow (Sun-like)

Effective Temperature

5,495 K — cooler than the Sun (5,778 K)

Estimated Age

7.77 Gyr — older than the Sun (4.6 Gyr)

Stellar Radius

1.890 R☉

Stellar Mass

1.090 M☉

Metallicity [Fe/H]

-0.09

Extended Stellar Properties

Surface gravity (log g)

3.950 dex

Stellar density

0.190 g/cm³

Systemic radial velocity

4.95 km/s

Rotational v·sin i

1.56 km/s

Activity index (log R'HK)

-4.990

Metallicity ratio

[Fe/H]

Distance
17.90 parsec
Light-years 58.39 ly
V-band magnitude
4.97 mag
Voyager-speed travel 1,029,628 yr

Multi-band Host Photometry — 11 bands

2.55.75.68B4.97V4.76Gaia4.29TESS3.80J3.46H3.50K2.49W12.95W23.26W33.19W4

Astrometric Data

Parallax

55.835 mas

Total Proper Motion

622.569 mas/yr

PM Right Ascension

-235.56 mas/yr

PM Declination

-576.28 mas/yr

Galactic Cartesian (pc)

x = -0.900 · y = -0.366 · z = 0.238

Equatorial (J2000)

RA 202.10649° · Dec 13.77631°

Galactic ℓ, b

337.657° · 74.099°

Ecliptic λ, β

194.967° · 21.338°

HTM-20 index

480059084

Observation Record

Photometric series

1

RV measurements

5

Stellar spectra

2

Archive notes

1

Wikipedia → Image: Wikimedia Commons · HeNRyKus · GPL

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