Tau Ceti e, also called 52 Ceti e, is an exoplanet orbiting

Tau Ceti Tau Ceti, Latinized from τ Ceti, is a single star in the constellation Cetus that is spectrally similar to the Sun, although it has only about 78% of the Sun's mass. At a distance of just under from the Solar System, it is a rela ...

that was detected by statistical analyses of the data of the star's variations in radial velocity that were obtained using

HIRES Hires may refer to: * High Resolution Fly's Eye, ultra-high-energy cosmic ray observatory * High Resolution Echelle Spectrometer or High Resolution Echelle Spectrograph, W. M. Keck Observatory's spectrometer * Hires Big H, restaurant chain headquar ...

, AAPS and

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. ...

. Its possible properties were refined in 2017: it orbits at a distance of (between the orbits of

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never f ...

and Mercury in the

Solar System The Solar System Capitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Solar ...

) with an orbital period of 168 days and has a

minimum mass In astronomy, minimum mass is the lower-bound calculated mass of observed objects such as planets, stars and binary systems, nebulae, and black holes. Minimum mass is a widely cited statistic for extrasolar planets detected by the radial veloci ...

of 3.93 Earth masses. If Tau Ceti e possesses an Earth-like atmosphere, the surface temperature would be around . Based upon the incident flux upon the planet, a study by Güdel et al. (2014) speculated that the planet may lie inside the inner-boundary of the

habitable zone In astronomy and astrobiology, the circumstellar habitable zone (CHZ), or simply the habitable zone, is the range of orbits around a star within which a planetary surface can support liquid water given sufficient atmospheric pressure.J. F. Kast ...

and closer to a Venus-like world.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tau Ceti e Tau Ceti Exoplanets discovered in 2012 Exoplanets in the habitable zone