NASA (Exoplanet Catalog artwork)51 Eridani b
A young Jupiter twin with the strongest methane signature of any imaged planet
Overview
51 Eridani b is a "Jupiter-like" planet that orbits the young F0 V star 51 Eridani, in the constellation Eridanus. It is 96 light-years away from the Solar system, and it is approximately 20 million years old.
Source: Wikipedia
NASA: 51 Eridani b is a gas giant exoplanet that orbits a A-type star. Its mass is 10.9 Jupiters, it takes 24.9 years to complete one orbit of its star, and is 10.4 AU from its star. Its discovery was announced in 2015.
Why it matters
- The Gemini Planet Imager's first discovery, in 2015, 97 light-years away.
- Only 20 million years old and a few Jupiter masses, resembling a young Jupiter.
- Its orbit of about 11 AU is similar in scale to Saturn's.
NASA puts it this way: “51 Eridani b is a gas giant exoplanet that orbits an F-type star. Its mass is 2 Jupiters, it takes 32 years to complete one orbit of its star, and is 13.2 AU from its star. Its discovery was announced in 2015.”
Discovery & system
- Discovered
- 2015 · Imaging · Gemini Observatory
- Discovery paper
- Macintosh et al. 2015
- Discoverers
- Gemini Planet Imager
- Host star
- 51 Eri · F0 IV · 7,422 K · 1.75 M☉
- System
- 1 known planet, 3 stars
The system
| World | Period | Distance | Radius | Mass | Temp. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 51 Eri b | 24.9 yr | 10.4 AU | — | 10.9 M♃ | 807 K |
By the numbers
- Radius
- 1 R♃11.2 R⊕
- Mass
- 10.9 M♃3,464 M⊕
- Orbital period
- 24.9 yr
- Distance from star
- 10.4 AU1,556 million km
- Eccentricity
- 0.57highly elliptical
- Equilibrium temp.
- 807 K534 °C
- Starlight received
- 0.05 × Earth
- Distance from Earth
- 97.1 ly29.8 pc
Sources
Image: NASA (Exoplanet Catalog artwork) · NASA media: generally free of copyright · image page
Text: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Taglines and highlights are editorial.