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Entering orbit…
Habitability
10/ 100
Uninhabitable
GJ 179 c rendered in TerraForge from its measured mass, orbit and star

GJ 179 c

Also written GJ 179c

Sub-Neptune40 light years awayFound 2019
Mass
4.89 × Earth
Radius
2.06 × Earth
Gravity
1.15 g
Surface (est.)
568 K
Year
3.5 days
From Earth
40.1 ly
Mass
4.89 × Earth
Radius
2.06 × Earth
Gravity
1.15 g
Surface (est.)
568 K
Year
3.5 days
From Earth
40.1 ly

GJ 179 system

Type
M-type (Red Dwarf)
Spectral type
M3.5
Temperature
3,370 K
Radius
0.38 ☉
Mass
0.357 ☉
Planets
2
Luminosity
0.0168 ☉

Published by the Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia. This world’s temperature and habitability score are computed from its star’s published radius and temperature.

GJ 179 c0.032 AUYou are here4.9 M⊕
GJ 179 b2.41 AU302 M⊕
Habitable zone

Star and planets drawn to scale: the star is 20 times as wide as GJ 179 c, so only its edge is in view. Orbits spaced as in the star system view.

exoplanet.euListed by the Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia; not yet in NASA's confirmed catalogue.View on exoplanet.eu

Estimated: this planet doesn't transit its star, so its size is inferred, not measured

GJ 179 c, from the Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia (found 2019). Measured: 4.89 Earth masses, 0.032 AU, a 3370 K M-type star. Composition inferred from a estimated bulk density of 0.56x Earth's, modeled rather than measured since this isn't a transiting planet, too low for bare rock at this size, suggesting a rocky core under roughly a 2% hydrogen/helium envelope by mass, with a day locked to its 3.5-day year, as anything orbiting this close would be.

Surface. No solid surface - a hydrogen-helium envelope wrapped around a rocky core (a sub-Neptune)

Sub-Neptune
Life unlikely — too hot for liquid waterMagnetic FieldLow Activity
GJ 179 c is a sub-Neptune: a 4.9x Earth core wrapped in a deep hydrogen-helium envelope, with no solid surface to stand on.
Sub-Neptunes are the most common planets Kepler found, though our own solar system has none. Too light to be a giant, they still hold on to a thick envelope of light gas over a rocky or icy core.
Classification Criteria:
✓ Mass: 4.9x Earth (under 20x, below the giants)✓ A hydrogen-helium envelope over the core

Reading GJ 179 c’s atmosphere

Dominant elements: O, Si, Fe, N, C, HThis is what a telescope would measure while GJ 179 c crosses in front of its star: starlight passes through the atmosphere and spreads into a rainbow band. Each dark line marks a wavelength the atmosphere absorbed.Every element absorbs its own signature wavelengths — hydrogen always darkens the same two spots, calcium another pair, and so on. Astronomers match the lines in a real spectrum against a library of these signatures to say what an atmosphere is made of, light-years away, without ever visiting. A deeper line generally means more of that element is present.GJ 179 c sits about 40 light-years away, found by the radial velocity method. Most catalogued distances trace back to parallax: as Earth orbits the Sun, a nearby star appears to shift very slightly against the distant background stars, and the size of that shift gives its distance directly.
Further reading
ExoplanetsSara Seager (editor)The field's standard reference: how planets are found, how they form, and what their atmospheres are made of.The Planet FactoryElizabeth TaskerHow planets are made, and why so few of them come out like Earth.Exoplanets: Diamond Worlds, Super Earths, Pulsar PlanetsMichael Summers & James TrefilThe strange end of the catalogue — carbon worlds, molten rock, planets orbiting dead stars.The Little Book of ExoplanetsJoshua WinnHow these worlds are found, and what a measurement can honestly tell us.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases — if you buy through these links, TerraForge may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Habitability ScoreUninhabitable
10
Contributing Factors
temperature6
Extremely hot - hostile to known life forms
atmosphere30

Deep hydrogen-helium envelope with photochemical haze

Hydrogen-rich atmosphere typical of gas giants
water15
No solid surface — any water is locked in a supercritical mantle and hot ice, not oceans
magnetic Field100
Magnetic field provides radiation protection
geology60
Some geological activity provides slow nutrient cycling
Organic Chemistry80
Core organic elements (CHNO) present
rotation65
Slow rotation - significant day/night temperature variations, but life can adapt

Physical Properties

Mass
4.89x Earth (2.92e+25 kg)
Radius
1.70x Earth (10,814 km)
This planet: 1.70× Earth radiusEarth: 1× (baseline)
Surface Gravity
1.70x Earth (16.7 m/s²)
Surface Temperature
568 K (295 °C / 562 °F)
Rotation Period
83.5 hours/day (slower than Earth)
This planet: 84 h/dayEarth: 24 h/day

Elemental Composition

A dark ringed planet hanging over the horizon of a rocky moon, its rings lit by a distant sun

New: Stand on Your Moons 🌒

A planet's surface view isn't the only ground any more. Press the surface button on a planet with moons and it asks where to stand: the planet itself, or any moon still in orbit, each tagged with what it became — ocean, ice, carbon, volcanic. Every moon gets its own ground and sky from its own physics: airless rock under a black sky, ice cracked by geysers over a hidden sea, sulfur plains shaking with eruptions, or orange haze you can't see the sun through. And hanging over the horizon, there's the planet you built.

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