61 Virginis b (abbreviated 61 Vir b) is an extrasolar planet

Extrasolar planet

An extrasolar planet, or exoplanet, is a planet outside the Solar System. A total of such planets have been identified as of . It is now known that a substantial fraction of stars have planets, including perhaps half of all Sun-like stars...

, orbiting the 5th magnitude

Apparent magnitude

The apparent magnitude of a celestial body is a measure of its brightness as seen by an observer on Earth, adjusted to the value it would have in the absence of the atmosphere...

 G-type star 61 Virginis, in Virgo

Virgo (constellation)

Virgo is one of the constellations of the zodiac. Its name is Latin for virgin, and its symbol is . Lying between Leo to the west and Libra to the east, it is the second largest constellation in the sky...

. This planet has a minimum mass

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...

 of 5.1 times that of Earth and is an example of a super-Earth

Super-Earth

A super-Earth is an extrasolar planet with a mass higher than Earth's, but substantially below the mass of the Solar System's gas giants. The term super-Earth refers only to the mass of the planet, and does not imply anything about the surface conditions or habitability...

 planet. It orbits very close to the star, at a distance of 0.050201 AU with an eccentricity of 0.12. This planet was discovered on 14 December 2009 using the radial velocity method taken at Keck and Anglo-Australian Observatories

Anglo-Australian Observatory

The Australian Astronomical Observatory , formerly the Anglo-Australian Observatory, is an optical/near-infrared astronomy observatory with its headquarters in suburban Sydney, Australia...

.