NASA (Exoplanet Catalog artwork)Teegarden's Star b
An Earth-mass planet 12.5 light-years away with one of the highest Earth-similarity scores
Overview
Teegarden's Star b is an exoplanet found orbiting within the habitable zone of Teegarden's Star, an M-type red dwarf 12.5 light-years away from the Solar System. It had the highest Earth Similarity Index (ESI) of any exoplanet, but in February 2024 a new study updated the parameters of the planet, thus reducing its ESI to 0.90, making it no longer the planet with the hightest ESI. Along with Teegarden's Star c, it is among the closest-known potentially habitable exoplanets.
Source: Wikipedia
NASA: Teegarden’s Star b is a super Earth exoplanet that orbits a M-type star. Its mass is 1.16 Earths, it takes 4.9 days to complete one orbit of its star, and is 0.0259 AU from its star. Its discovery was announced in 2019.
Why it matters
- Discovered in 2019 around a very faint, cool M-dwarf by the CARMENES survey.
- At least 1.05 Earth masses, orbiting every 4.9 days in the habitable zone.
- Its star is so dim that the planet's sky would be a deep red twilight.
NASA puts it this way: “Teegarden's Star b is a super Earth exoplanet that orbits an M-type star. Its mass is 1.05 Earths, it takes 4.9 days to complete one orbit of its star, and is 0.0252 AU from its star. Its discovery was announced in 2019.”
Discovery & system
- Discovered
- 2019 · Radial Velocity · Calar Alto Observatory
- Discovery paper
- Zechmeister et al. 2019
- Host star
- Teegarden's Star · M7.0 V · 3,034 K · 0.1 M☉
- System
- 3 known planets
- Siblings
- Teegarden's Star c, Teegarden's Star d
The system
| World | Period | Distance | Radius | Mass | Temp. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Teegarden's Star b | 4.91 d | 0.026 AU | 1.05 R⊕ | ≥ 1.16 M⊕ | 277 K |
| Teegarden's Star c | 11.4 d | 0.046 AU | 1.02 R⊕ | ≥ 1.05 M⊕ | 209 K |
| Teegarden's Star d | 26.1 d | 0.079 AU | 0.95 R⊕ | ≥ 0.82 M⊕ | 159 K |
By the numbers
- Radius
- 1.05 R⊕6,690 km
- Mass
- ≥ 1.16 M⊕6.93 ×10²⁴ kg · minimum mass (M sin i)
- Orbital period
- 4.91 d0.01 yr
- Distance from star
- 0.026 AU3.87 million km
- Eccentricity
- 0.03nearly circular
- Equilibrium temp.
- 277 K4 °C
- Starlight received
- 1 × Earth
- Distance from Earth
- 12.5 ly3.8 pc
- Density
- 5.51 g/cm³1 × Earth
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.