HD 40307 f is an

extrasolar planet An exoplanet or extrasolar planet is a planet outside the Solar System. The first possible evidence of an exoplanet was noted in 1917 but was not recognized as such. The first confirmation of detection occurred in 1992. A different planet, init ...

orbiting the star

HD 40307 HD 40307 is an orange ( K-type) main-sequence star located approximately 42 light-years away in the constellation of Pictor (the Easel), taking its primary name from its Henry Draper Catalogue designation. It is calculated to be slightly ...

. It is located 42

light-years A light-year, alternatively spelled light year, is a large unit of length used to express astronomical distances and is equivalent to about 9.46 trillion kilometers (), or 5.88 trillion miles ().One trillion here is taken to be 1012 ...

away in the direction of the southern constellation

Pictor Pictor is a constellation in the Southern Celestial Hemisphere, located between the star Canopus and the Large Magellanic Cloud. Its name is Latin for Painting, painter, and is an abbreviation of the older name Equuleus Pictoris (the "painter's ...

. The planet was discovered by the

radial velocity The radial velocity or line-of-sight velocity, also known as radial speed or range rate, of a target with respect to an observer is the temporal rate of change, rate of change of the distance or Slant range, range between the two points. It is e ...

method, using the

European Southern Observatory The European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere, commonly referred to as the European Southern Observatory (ESO), is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental research organisation made up of 16 mem ...

HARPS The High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) is a high-precision echelle planet-finding spectrograph installed in 2002 on the ESO's 3.6m telescope at La Silla Observatory in Chile. The first light was achieved in February 2003. H ...

apparatus by a team of astronomers led by Mikko Tuomi at the University of Hertfordshire and Guillem Anglada-Escude of the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. The existence of planet was confirmed in 2015.

Planetary characteristics

This planet is the fifth planet from the star, at a distance of about 0.25 AU (compared to 0.39 AU for Mercury) with negligible eccentricity. HD 40307 f's minimum mass is 5.2 that of Earth, and dynamical models suggest it cannot be much more (and so is measured close to edge-on). Planets like this in that system have been presumed "super-Earth". Even though HD 40307 f is closer to the star than Mercury is to the Sun, it gets (slightly) less insolation than Mercury gets because the parent star is dimmer than our home star. It still gets more heat than Venus gets (like

Gliese 581 c Gliese 581c (Gl 581c or GJ 581c) is a planet orbiting within the Gliese 581 system. It is the second planet discovered in the system and the third in order from the star. With a mass at least 5.5 times that of the Earth, it is classified as a s ...

), and it has more gravitational potential than Venus has. HD 40307 f is more likely a super-Venus than a "super-Earth".Tuomi, Fig 17 cites Fig 4 in , "100% clouds" region Moreover, planets b, c, and d are presumed to have migrated in from outer orbits; and planet b is predicted a sub-Neptune.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hd 40307 f HD 40307 Pictor (constellation) Exoplanets discovered in 2012 Exoplanets detected by radial velocity Super-Earths Exoplanets in the Gliese Catalog