Gliese 179 b is an extrasolar planet

Extrasolar planet

An extrasolar planet, or exoplanet, is a planet outside the Solar System. A total of such planets have been identified as of . It is now known that a substantial fraction of stars have planets, including perhaps half of all Sun-like stars...

 which orbits the M-type main sequence

Main sequence

The main sequence is a continuous and distinctive band of stars that appears on plots of stellar color versus brightness. These color-magnitude plots are known as Hertzsprung–Russell diagrams after their co-developers, Ejnar Hertzsprung and Henry Norris Russell...

 star

Star

A star is a massive, luminous sphere of plasma held together by gravity. At the end of its lifetime, a star can also contain a proportion of degenerate matter. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun, which is the source of most of the energy on Earth...

 Gliese 179, located approximately 40 light years away in the constellation

Constellation

In modern astronomy, a constellation is an internationally defined area of the celestial sphere. These areas are grouped around asterisms, patterns formed by prominent stars within apparent proximity to one another on Earth's night sky....

 Orion

Orion (constellation)

Orion, often referred to as The Hunter, is a prominent constellation located on the celestial equator and visible throughout the world. It is one of the most conspicuous, and most recognizable constellations in the night sky...

. This planet has a minimum mass

Minimum mass

In astronomy, minimum mass is the lower-bound calculated mass of observed objects such as planets, stars and binary systems, nebulae, and black holes. Minimum mass is a widely cited statistic for extrasolar planets...

 a little bit less than Jupiter and it orbits at 2.41 AU

Astronomical unit

An astronomical unit is a unit of length equal to about or approximately the mean Earth–Sun distance....

 or 361 Gm

Gigametre

A gigametre is a unit of length in the metric system, equal to one billion meters, the SI base unit of length, hence to 1,000,000 km or approximately 621,370 miles....

 from the star with an eccentricity slightly less than Pluto

Pluto

Pluto, formal designation 134340 Pluto, is the second-most-massive known dwarf planet in the Solar System and the tenth-most-massive body observed directly orbiting the Sun...

. The planetary distance ranges from 1.90 to 2.92 AU. This planet was discovered by using radial velocity method from spectrograph

Spectrograph

A spectrograph is an instrument that separates an incoming wave into a frequency spectrum. There are several kinds of machines referred to as spectrographs, depending on the precise nature of the waves...

 taken at Keck Observatory on November 13, 2009.

See also

Other planets that were discovered or confirmed on November 13, 2009:

• HD 34445 b
  HD 34445 b
  HD 34445 b is an extrasolar planet which orbits the G-type star HD 34445, located approximately 152 light years away in the constellation Orion. This planet was discovered in 2004 and finally confirmed in 2009. This planet has a minimum mass two-thirds that of Jupiter and orbits about 2 AU from the...
  
  
• HD 126614 Ab
  HD 126614 Ab
  HD 126614 Ab, or simply HD 126614 b, is an extrasolar planet which orbits the primary K-type star HD 126614 A, located approximately 236 light years away in the constellation Taurus. It was discovered on November 13, 2009. However, this planet has a highly eccentric orbit around its parent star...
  
  
• HD 24496 Ab
  HD 24496 Ab
  HD 24496 Ab, or simply HD 24496 b, is an extrasolar planet which orbits the G-type star HD 24496 A, located approximately 160 light years away in the constellation Taurus. This is a wide-orbiting saturnian planet discovered on November 13, 2009...
  
  
• HD 13931 b
  HD 13931 b
  HD 13931 b is an extrasolar planet which orbits the G-type star HD 13931, located approximately 144 light years away in the constellation Andromeda. This planet takes 11.55 years to orbit the star at the average distance of 5.15 AU or 770 Gm. The planet’s eccentricity is about the same as Earth...
  
  
• QS Virginis b

Related giant planets around red dwarfs:

• HIP 79431 b
  HIP 79431 b
  HIP 79431 b is an extrasolar planet discovered by the W. M. Keck Observatory in 2010. The planet is found in an M type dwarf star catalogued as HIP 79431 and is located within the Scorpius constellation approximately 47 light years away from the Earth. Its orbital period lasts about 111.7 days and...
  
  
• Gliese 849 b
  Gliese 849 b
  Gliese 849 b is an extrasolar planet approximately 29 light years away in the constellation of Aquarius. It is the first long-period Jupiter-like planet discovered around a red dwarf star, announced in August 2006 by the California and Carnegie Planet Search team using the radial velocity technique...
  
  
• Gliese 876 b
  Gliese 876 b
  Gliese 876 b is an extrasolar planet orbiting the red dwarf star Gliese 876. It completes one orbit in approximately 61 days. Discovered in June 1998, Gliese 876 b was the first planet to be discovered orbiting a red dwarf star.- Discovery :...
  
  
• Gliese 876 c
  Gliese 876 c
  Gliese 876 c is an extrasolar planet orbiting the red dwarf star Gliese 876, taking about 30 days to complete an orbit. The planet was discovered in April 2001 and is the second planet in order of increasing distance from its star.- Discovery :...
  
  
• Gliese 317 b
  Gliese 317 b
  Gliese 317 b is an extrasolar planet approximately 50 light-years away in the constellation of Pyxis. The planet was announced in July 2007 to be orbiting the red dwarf star Gliese 317. The planet is a jovian planet that orbits about 95% the distance between Earth to the Sun. Despite of this, it...
  
  
• Gliese 832 b
  Gliese 832 b
  Gliese 832 b is an extrasolar planet located approximately 16 light-years away in the constellation of Grus, orbiting the star Gliese 832. This is the longest-period Jupiter-like planet orbiting around a red dwarf star. This planet takes 3416 days to revolve at an orbital distance of 3.4 AU...