Gaia-4 b
| Discovery | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | Stefánsson et al. 2025 |
| Discovery site | Gaia |
| Discovery date | 2024 |
| Astrometry Radial Velocity | |
| Orbital characteristics | |
| Inclination | 116.9 ± 4.4[1] |
| Star | Gaia-4 |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Mass | 11.8 MJ |
Gaia-4 b is a massive gas giant exoplanet, classified as a super-Jupiter, orbiting the low-mass K-type star Gaia-4. Located approximately 244 light-years from Earth, it was discovered using astrometric data from the European Space Agency's Gaia mission, marking it as one of the first exoplanets confirmed through this method.[2][3][4][1][5][6] It has a mass of 11.8 MJ.[2]
Discovery
Gaia-4 b was identified through the Gaia mission's Data Release 3 (DR3), which detected the astrometric wobble of the host star caused by the planet's gravitational influence. Confirmation came via radial velocity measurements using ground-based spectrographs, including the Habitable-zone Planet Finder (HPF) on the Hobby-Eberly Telescope, the NEID spectrograph on the WIYN 3.5m Telescope, and the FIber-fed Echelle Spectrograph (FIES) on the Nordic Optical Telescope. These observations ruled out alternative explanations, such as a background star or binary companion, confirming Gaia-4 b as a planetary body.[7][8]
Host star
Gaia-4 is a K-type star located 244 ly from the Earth in the constellation Canes Venatici, with a right ascension of 13h 58m 1.62s and a declination of +31° 41′ 43.5″.[9][10]
References
- ^ a b Martin, Pierre-Yves (2025). "Planet Gaia-4 b". exoplanet.eu. Retrieved 2025-10-25.
- ^ a b "Gaia-4 b - NASA Science". 2025-02-15. Retrieved 2025-10-25.
- ^ "Gaia-4 | NASA Exoplanet Archive". exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu. Retrieved 2025-10-25.
- ^ "Wobbling stars reveal hidden companions in Gaia data". www.esa.int. Retrieved 2025-10-25.
- ^ Stefánsson, Gudmundur; Mahadevan, Suvrath; Winn, Joshua N.; Marcussen, Marcus L.; Kanodia, Shubham; Albrecht, Simon; Fitzmaurice, Evan; Mikulskytė, Onė; Cañas, Caleb I.; Espinoza-Retamal, Juan I.; Zwart, Yiri; Krolikowski, Daniel M.; Hotnisky, Andrew; Robertson, Paul; Alvarado-Montes, Jaime A. (February 2025). "Gaia-4b and 5b: Radial Velocity Confirmation of Gaia Astrometric Orbital Solutions Reveal a Massive Planet and a Brown Dwarf Orbiting Low-mass Stars". The Astronomical Journal. 169 (2): 107. Bibcode:2025AJ....169..107S. doi:10.3847/1538-3881/ada9e1. ISSN 0004-6256.
- ^ "First Gaia astrometric planet discovery confirmed". carnegiescience.edu. 2025-10-17. Retrieved 2025-10-25.
- ^ Robertson, Paul M. (2025-02-05). "HPF Confirms the First Exoplanet Discoveries from Gaia Astrometry". The Habitable Zone Planet Finder. Retrieved 2025-10-26.
- ^ [email protected]. "Gaia-4b/5b". www.noirlab.edu. Retrieved 2025-10-26.
- ^ "PM J13580+3141". simbad.cds.unistra.fr. Retrieved 2025-10-26.
- ^ "★ Gaia-4". Stellar Catalog. Retrieved 2025-10-25.