About this world
GJ 96 b is a Neptune-like planet orbiting GJ 96, a cool red dwarf (type M2) 38.9 light-years from Earth. It is about 4.7 times the size of Earth (its size estimated from its mass), with at least 20 Earth masses (a minimum, measured by radial velocity). It completes an orbit every 73.9 days at 0.29 AU from its star, closer than Mercury is to the Sun, on a strongly elongated orbit (e = 0.44).
Its equilibrium temperature is about 258 K (−15 °C), which places it in the optimistic habitable zone: the band where liquid water could exist on a rocky surface. At its size it almost certainly keeps a deep envelope of hydrogen and helium.
It was discovered in 2018 by radial velocity with Haute-Provence Observatory. The star wobbles toward and away from us, Doppler-shifting its spectrum.