About this world
GJ 1002 c is an Earth-sized planet orbiting GJ 1002, a cool red dwarf (type M5.5V) 15.8 light-years from Earth. It is about 1.1 times the size of Earth (its size estimated from its mass), with at least 1.4 Earth masses (a minimum, measured by radial velocity). It completes an orbit every 21.2 days at 0.074 AU from its star, closer than Mercury is to the Sun.
Its equilibrium temperature is about 182 K (−91 °C), which places it in the conservative habitable zone: the band where liquid water could exist on a rocky surface. By the "cosmic shoreline", it has likely held on to an atmosphere.
It was discovered in 2022 by radial velocity with Multiple Observatories. The star wobbles toward and away from us, Doppler-shifting its spectrum. GJ 1002 has 2 known planets; the others are GJ 1002 b.