About this world
TOI-1266 b is a sub-Neptune orbiting TOI-1266, a cool red dwarf (type M2) 117 light-years from Earth. It is about 2.5 times the size of Earth and holds 4.5 Earth masses. It completes an orbit every 10.9 days at 0.073 AU from its star, closer than Mercury is to the Sun.
Its equilibrium temperature is about 415 K (142 °C): far too hot for liquid water on its surface. At its size it almost certainly keeps a deep envelope of hydrogen and helium.
It was discovered in 2020 by transit with Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). A planet crosses its star and dims it by a tiny, periodic fraction. TOI-1266 has 3 known planets; the others are TOI-1266 c and TOI-1266 d.