HD 40979 b
Encyclopedia
HD 40979 b is an extrasolar planet
orbiting the star
HD 40979
, was detected from the Lick
and Keck observatories and photometric observations at Fairborn Observatory reveal low-amplitude brightness variations in HD 40979. It is thought to be a large gas giant
planet. It was discovered in 2002 by Debra Fischer
.
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 star
Star
A star is a massive, luminous sphere of plasma held together by gravity. At the end of its lifetime, a star can also contain a proportion of degenerate matter. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun, which is the source of most of the energy on Earth...
HD 40979
HD 40979
HD 40979 is a yellow-white dwarf star about 109 light-years away in the constellation of Auriga. The star is a member of a multiple system: it has a companion HD 40979B which shares its proper motion and is located at a projected distance of 6400 AU from the primary...
, was detected from the Lick
Lick Observatory
The Lick Observatory is an astronomical observatory, owned and operated by the University of California. It is situated on the summit of Mount Hamilton, in the Diablo Range just east of San Jose, California, USA...
and Keck observatories and photometric observations at Fairborn Observatory reveal low-amplitude brightness variations in HD 40979. It is thought to be a large gas giant
Gas giant
A gas giant is a large planet that is not primarily composed of rock or other solid matter. There are four gas giants in the Solar System: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune...
planet. It was discovered in 2002 by Debra Fischer
Debra Fischer
Debra A. Fischer is a professor of astronomy at Yale University. Fischer has co-authored over 100 papers on dwarf and sub-stellar mass objects in the galactic neighborhood, including many on extrasolar planets. She is a principal investigator with the N2K Consortium searching for exoplanets...
.