nu Oph and Its Two Known Planets

nu Oph is a K0 III star 151 light-years away. It is 0.65 billion years old, and its mass is 2.7 solar masses, with a larger radius than the Sun at 14.6 solar radii. Its temperature is 4890 K, which is cooler than the Sun's.

Both planets were discovered in 2012 by the radial velocity method, which detects the wobble a planet's gravity induces in its star's motion. Repeated wobbles reveal a planet and its orbital period. nu Oph b has a minimum mass of 6850 Earth masses and an orbital period of 530 days. nu Oph c has a minimum mass of 7530 Earth masses and an orbital period of 3180 days. A minimum mass is a lower bound on a planet's true mass, so both values represent lower limits rather than exact masses. Each planet's minimum mass is also larger than Earth's, and nu Oph b's is roughly 21.5 times Jupiter's mass, while nu Oph c's is roughly 23.7 times Jupiter's mass.

Among the listed planets, nu Oph b has the shortest year by reported estimates at 530 days, and nu Oph c has the longest at 3180 days; nu Oph b also has the smallest minimum mass, with nu Oph c the largest. The star's reported mass estimate is larger than the Sun's.