Confirmed Exoplanet Discovered 2010

GJ 3634 b

A sub-neptune orbiting the m-type red dwarf GJ 3634, located approximately 66.5 light-years from Earth.

Key parameters at a glance

  • A radius of 2.83 Earth radii
  • A mass of 8.40 Earth masses
  • Surface gravity around 1.05 g
  • An orbital period of 2.646 days
  • Semi-major axis 0.0287 AU
  • Distance from Earth 66.46 light-years
  • Earth Similarity Index 0.660
  • Travel time at Voyager 1 speed 1,172,088 years
  • Almost certainly tidally locked to its host star given the close orbit

Context from the literature

GJ 3634 b is a super-Earth exoplanet in the orbit of the nearby red dwarf GJ 3634 at approximately 64.5 light-years in constellation Hydra. The planet is approximately eight times the mass of Earth, and orbits its star every two and a half days at a distance of 0.0287 AU. The planet was the first to be discovered by a group of astronomers searching for exoplanets in the orbit of very-low-mass stars after the team reorganized their strategy, choosing to search for targets that they could also confirm using the transit method. However, a transit event associated with GJ 3634 b was not detected. The planet's discovery was published in Astronomy and Astrophysics on February 8, 2011.

Excerpted from Wikipedia · full article

GJ 3634 b Planet Profile

Physical Specs

Radius
2.83 R⊕
Radius (Jupiter)
0.253 R♃
Mass
8.40 M⊕
Mass (Jupiter)
0.026 M♃
Density
2.04 g/cm³
Surface Gravity
1.05 g (Earth)

Classification

Planet Type

Sub-Neptune

ESI Score 0.660
HZ Position Unknown
Controversial No

Discovery

Year 2010
Method Radial Velocity
Facility La Silla Observatory
Telescope 3.6 m ESO Telescope

Size rank in cohort

Rank by radius

#703of 1978

top 35.5%

This planet

2.83R⊕

Sub-Neptune median

2.71R⊕

Nearest-size peers

Metric Earth GJ 3634 b Jupiter
Radius (R⊕)1.002.8311.21
Mass (M⊕)1.008.40317.83
Density (g/cm³)5.512.041.33
Surface Gravity (g)1.001.052.53
Insolation (S⊕)1.000.037

Alternative Mass Estimates

Method Value Interpretation
Best measured mass 8.400 M⊕ Direct mass measurement (not derived).
Minimum mass (M sin i) 7.000 M⊕ Lower bound from radial-velocity fitting.
Computed mass 8.200 M⊕ Model-computed mass (e.g. from mass-radius relation).

Star Catalogue Identifiers

TIC

TIC 49064384

Gaia DR2

Gaia DR2 5452743423618768000

Gaia DR3

Gaia DR3 5452743423618768000

System

GJ 3634

Percentile among Sub-Neptune cohort

Radius 2.830 R⊕ · percentile 64 / cohort 1978
Mass 8.400 M⊕ · percentile 58 / cohort 1978
Orbital period 2.65 d · percentile 4 / cohort 1946
Distance 20.38 pc · percentile 4 / cohort 1975
ESI 0.660 · percentile 89 / cohort 1978

Orbit & Habitability

Orbital Dynamics

Period
2.646 days
Semi-major axis
0.0287 AU
Eccentricity
0.080
Inclination
59.00 °

Year Length

A year here lasts approximately 2.65 Earth days (0.7% of a terrestrial year) on a nearly circular orbit at a mean orbital distance of 0.0287 AU.

Eq. Temperature

 

Insolation (S⊕)

Earth = 1.00

Earth Similarity (ESI)

0.660

0 = alien, 1 = Earth-identical

Insufficient insolation data. Close-orbiting tidally-locked around a cool host.

Discovery Paper

Primary reference

Bonfils et al. 2011

Instrument

HARPS Spectrograph

Publication

2011-04

Observation locale

Ground

Host System: GJ 3634

Spectral Class

M-type red dwarf

Effective Temperature

3,517 K — cooler than the Sun (5,778 K)

Estimated Age

5.00 Gyr — older than the Sun (4.6 Gyr)

Stellar Radius

0.430 R☉

Stellar Mass

0.450 M☉

Metallicity [Fe/H]

Extended Stellar Properties

Surface gravity (log g)

4.776 dex

Stellar density

6.740 g/cm³

Systemic radial velocity

5.19 km/s

Rotational v·sin i

1.00 km/s

Distance
20.38 parsec
Light-years 66.46 ly
V-band magnitude
11.94 mag
Voyager-speed travel 1,172,088 yr

Multi-band Host Photometry — 11 bands

6.913.513.46B11.94V10.92Gaia9.79TESS8.36J7.76H7.47K7.24W17.22W27.13W36.88W4

Astrometric Data

Parallax

49.044 mas

Total Proper Motion

574.178 mas/yr

PM Right Ascension

-566.86 mas/yr

PM Declination

-91.37 mas/yr

Galactic Cartesian (pc)

x = -0.825 · y = 0.227 · z = -0.517

Equatorial (J2000)

RA 164.64335° · Dec -31.14434°

Galactic ℓ, b

276.221° · 25.809°

Ecliptic λ, β

179.842° · -34.380°

HTM-20 index

1794520735

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