HD 179079 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 G-type subgiant

Subgiant star

A subgiant star is a star that is slightly brighter than a normal main-sequence star of the same spectral class, but not as bright as true giant stars...

 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...

 HD 179079

HD 179079

HD 179079 is a G-type subgiant star in the constellation of Aquila. It has an apparent visual magnitude of approximately 7.96. It is larger than our Sun as it has a radius of approximately 1.48 solar radii. An exoplanet, HD 179079 b, was announced in August 2009 to be orbiting this star...

, located approximately 208 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....

 Aquila

Aquila (constellation)

Aquila is a stellar constellation. Its name is Latin for 'eagle' and it is commonly represented as such. In mythology, Aquila was owned by the Roman god Jupiter and performed many tasks for him....

. This planet has mass only 1/12 that of Jupiter or 1.5 times Neptune. The planet orbits very close to the star, at a distance of 0.11 AU

Astronomical unit

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

. This planet takes two weeks to revolve around the star. This planet was discovered using the Keck telescopes on August 12, 2009.