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Entering orbit…
Habitability
20/ 100
Extremely Harsh
GJ 876 e rendered in TerraForge from its measured mass, orbit and star

GJ 876 e

Also written GJ 876e

Ice Giant15 light years awayFound 2010
Mass
14.60 × Earth
Radius
3.92 × Earth
Gravity
0.95 g
Surface (est.)
167 K
Year
124 days
From Earth
15.3 ly
Mass
14.60 × Earth
Radius
3.92 × Earth
Gravity
0.95 g
Surface (est.)
167 K
Year
124 days
From Earth
15.3 ly

GJ 876 system

Type
M-type (Red Dwarf)
Spectral type
M2.5V
Temperature
3,294 K
Radius
0.3 ☉
Mass
0.32 ☉
Planets
4
Luminosity
0.0124 ☉

Published by the NASA Exoplanet Archive. This world’s temperature and habitability score are computed from this star’s measured luminosity, not from a stand-in for its class.

GJ 876 d0.021 AU6.8 M⊕
GJ 876 c0.13 AU227 M⊕
GJ 876 b0.21 AU723 M⊕
GJ 876 e0.33 AUYou are here15 M⊕
Habitable zone

Star and planets drawn to scale: the star is 8.4 times as wide as GJ 876 e, so only its edge is in view. Orbits spaced as in the star system view.

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

GJ 876 e completes a rare chain of three planets whose orbits are locked together. It is a planet about the mass of Uranus that orbits GJ 876, a red dwarf about 15 light-years away, every 125 days or so, the outermost of four known planets. Its period is close to twice that of GJ 876 b and four times that of GJ 876 c.

Surface. Icy mantle surrounding rocky core, with hydrogen-helium atmosphere

Ice Giant
Magnetic FieldModerate Activity
GJ 876 e has moderate mass (14.6x Earth) with significant water, carbon, and nitrogen content, characteristic of ice giants.
Ice giants like Uranus and Neptune have icy interiors with thick atmospheres of hydrogen and helium, but not enough to be classified as gas giants.
Classification Criteria:
✓ Mass: 14.6x Earth (5-20x range)✓ Water/Carbon/Nitrogen rich composition

Reading GJ 876 e’s atmosphere

Dominant elements: H, O, Si, He, Fe, NThis is what a telescope would measure while GJ 876 e 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 876 e sits about 15 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 ScoreExtremely Harsh
20
Contributing Factors
temperature17
Very cold - water frozen, challenging for life
atmosphere30

Hydrogen and helium with water, methane, and ammonia ices

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
geology90
Active geology recycles nutrients and drives carbon cycle
Organic Chemistry80
Core organic elements (CHNO) present
rotation100
Optimal rotation period - balanced day/night cycle, moderate weather, and good heat distribution

Physical Properties

Mass
14.60x Earth (8.72e+25 kg)
Radius
2.44x Earth (15,571 km)
This planet: 2.44× Earth radiusEarth: 1× (baseline)
Surface Gravity
2.44x Earth (24.0 m/s²)
Surface Temperature
167 K (-106 °C / -158 °F)
Rotation Period
24.0 hours/day
This planet: 24 h/dayEarth: 24 h/day

Elemental Composition

How TerraForge built this world

GJ 876 e, from the NASA Exoplanet Archive (found 2010). Measured: 14.6 Earth masses, 0.334 AU, a 3294 K M-type star. Composition inferred from a estimated bulk density of 0.24x Earth's, modeled rather than measured since this isn't a transiting planet, larger than even a pure water/ice world of this mass, suggesting a water-rich interior under roughly a 13% hydrogen/helium envelope by mass, with an assumed 24-hour day — rotation cannot be measured for exoplanets.

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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