GJ 486 and Its Earth-Like Planet

GJ 486 is an M3.5 V star, a small, cool red dwarf, located 26.3 light-years from Earth. It has one known planet. Its spectral type places it in the M class, the coolest and reddest of the main-sequence temperature classes. The star's mass is 0.333 solar masses, its radius is 0.339 solar radii, and its temperature is 3290 K. Its age is 4 billion years. Each of these stellar measurements applies to the host star itself, and the reported mass, radius, and temperature estimates all fall below the corresponding values for the Sun.

The single planet, GJ 486 b, was discovered in 2021 by 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. GJ 486 b orbits its host in 1.47 days, and its mean density is 7.13 g/cm³, 1.29 times Earth's. The planet's radius is 1.29 Earth radii, larger than Earth's, which keeps it within the Earth-like size class of 1.5 times Earth's radius. Its mass is 2.77 Earth masses, also larger than Earth's.