HD 40979 and Its Planet

HD 40979 is a star 111 light-years away with a spectral type of F8, placing it in a hotter class than the Sun. It has a reported mass of 1.16 solar masses, a radius of 1.24 solar radii, and a temperature of 6140 K, all estimates that exceed the corresponding values for the Sun. One planet is known to orbit this host.

That planet, HD 40979 b, was discovered in 2002 using the radial velocity method, which detects the wobble a planet's gravity induces in its star's motion; repeated wobbles reveal the planet and its orbital period. HD 40979 b has a minimum mass of 1480 Earth masses, a lower bound on its true mass, and completes an orbit every 264 days. Its minimum mass is larger than Earth's and roughly 4.67 times Jupiter's mass.