HD 103949 b: A Minimum-Mass Planet Orbiting a Cool Dwarf

HD 103949 is a K3 V star, a classification that places it among the cooler, orange-hued main-sequence stars. It lies 86.4 light-years from us and hosts a single known planet. The star's reported mass estimate is smaller than the Sun's, at 0.78 solar masses, and its reported radius estimate is also smaller, at 0.741 solar radii. Its reported temperature is cooler than the Sun's, at 4820 K.

The one known planet is HD 103949 b, discovered in 2019 by the radial velocity method, which measures the wobble a planet's gravity induces in its star's motion. Its minimum mass is 11.2 Earth masses, larger than Earth's, meaning its true mass is at least this value. The planet completes an orbit in 121 days.