About this world
HIP 12961 b is a gas giant orbiting HIP 12961, a cool red dwarf (type M0) 76.2 light-years from Earth. It is about 1.2 times the size of Jupiter (its size estimated from its mass), with at least 0.36 Jupiter masses (a minimum, measured by radial velocity). It completes an orbit every 57.4 days at 0.25 AU from its star, closer than Mercury is to the Sun.
Its equilibrium temperature is about 303 K (30 °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 2010 by radial velocity with La Silla Observatory. The star wobbles toward and away from us, Doppler-shifting its spectrum.