About this world
HD 40979 b is a gas giant orbiting HD 40979, a yellow-white F-type star (type F8V) 111 light-years from Earth. It is about 1.2 times the size of Jupiter (its size estimated from its mass), with at least 4.7 Jupiter masses (a minimum, measured by radial velocity). It completes an orbit every 264 days at 0.85 AU from its star, on a strongly elongated orbit (e = 0.25).
Its equilibrium temperature is about 355 K (82 °C): too cold for liquid water on its surface. At its size it almost certainly keeps a deep envelope of hydrogen and helium.
It was discovered in 2002 by radial velocity with Multiple Observatories. The star wobbles toward and away from us, Doppler-shifting its spectrum.