Astronomers have detected a new exoplanet orbiting the nearby star GI 410, located approximately 39 light years away. The newly discovered planet, GI 410 b, is classified as a sub-Neptune with a mass of at least 8.4 Earth masses and orbits its host every 6.02 days.
Using the radial velocity method, which involves monitoring the changes in the star’s velocity due to the gravitational pull from the unseen exoplanet, researchers at the Grenoble Alpes University in France made the detection using the SPIRou near-infrared spectropolarimeter at the Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope. The observations were complemented by data from the optical velocimeter SOPHIE.
GI 410 b orbits its host star at a distance of about 0.053 AU and may have an active interaction with the high-energy radiation and stellar wind particle fluxes from GI 410. Calculations suggest that the exoplanet receives 20.4 times more insolation than Earth.
While the detection of GI 410 b is confirmed, two additional potential planetary signals were also detected at 2.99 and 18.7 days periods. Further observations are required to confirm or refute their planetary nature. The researchers emphasize the need for improved methods to recover data in the |Vtot|<10 km/s region to fully exploit all measurements taken. Source: https://phys.org/news/2025-04-neptune-exoplanet-orbiting-nearby-star.html