Gliese 436 b (pronounced /ˈɡliːzə/), or GJ 436 b, is a Neptune-sized extrasolar planet orbiting the red dwarf star Gliese 436. As of February 2009, it remains the second smallest transiting planet in mass and radius, after COROT-7b.
Gliese 436 b was discovered in August 2004 by the planet-hunting-by-way-of-radial-velocity team of Dr. Paul Butler and Geoffrey Marcy of the Carnegie Institute of Washington and University of California, Berkeley, res...
more
Gliese 436 b (pronounced /ˈɡliːzə/), or GJ 436 b, is a Neptune-sized extrasolar planet orbiting the red dwarf star Gliese 436. As of February 2009, it remains the second smallest transiting planet in mass and radius, after COROT-7b.
Gliese 436 b was discovered in August 2004 by the planet-hunting-by-way-of-radial-velocity team of Dr. Paul Butler and Geoffrey Marcy of the Carnegie Institute of Washington and University of California, Berkeley, respectively. Together with 55 Cancri e, it was then the first of a new class of planets with a minimum mass (M sini) similar to Neptune.
The planet was recorded to transit its star by an automatic process at NMSU on January 11, 2005, but this event went unheeded at the time. In 2007, Gillon led a team which observed the transit, grazing the stellar disc relative to Earth. Transit observations led to the determination of Gliese 436 b's exact mass and radius, both of which are very similar to Neptune. Gliese 436 b then became the smallest known...
less
