Mu Arae b, often designated HD 160691 b and formally named Quijote , is an

exoplanet An exoplanet or extrasolar planet is a planet outside the Solar System. The first confirmed detection of an exoplanet was in 1992 around a pulsar, and the first detection around a main-sequence star was in 1995. A different planet, first det ...

orbiting the star

Mu Arae Mu Arae is a single star with a planetary system in the constellation of Ara. Its name is a Bayer designation that is Latinized from μ Arae, and abbreviated Mu Ara or μ Ara. This star is officially named Cervantes, pronounced or , ...

in the constellation

Ara Ara may refer to: Biology * ''Ara'' (bird), a genus of parrots * Ara (fish) (''Niphon spinosus''), a species of fish * L-arabinose operon, also known as ara Places * Ara (mountain), a mountain in Armenia * Ara, Armenia, a village in Armenia ...

Description

The planet has at least one and a half times the mass of

Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the List of Solar System objects by size, largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a Jupiter mass, mass more than 2.5 times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined a ...

, and its orbital period is 643.25 days. The discovery of this

planet A planet is a large, Hydrostatic equilibrium, rounded Astronomical object, astronomical body that is generally required to be in orbit around a star, stellar remnant, or brown dwarf, and is not one itself. The Solar System has eight planets b ...

was announced on December 12, 2002, and was originally thought to be on a highly

eccentric Eccentricity or eccentric may refer to: * Eccentricity (behavior), odd behavior on the part of a person, as opposed to being "normal" Mathematics, science and technology Mathematics * Off- center, in geometry * Eccentricity (graph theory) of a ...

orbit. The latest models of Mu Arae planetary system, which has four known planets, give a lower eccentricity orbit. Although the planet itself is likely to be a

gas giant A gas giant is a giant planet composed mainly of hydrogen and helium. Jupiter and Saturn are the gas giants of the Solar System. The term "gas giant" was originally synonymous with "giant planet". However, in the 1990s, it became known that Uranu ...

with no solid surface, the orbital distance of 1.497

astronomical unit The astronomical unit (symbol: au or AU) is a unit of length defined to be exactly equal to . Historically, the astronomical unit was conceived as the average Earth-Sun distance (the average of Earth's aphelion and perihelion), before its m ...

s from its star puts it within the

habitable zone In astronomy and astrobiology, the habitable zone (HZ), or more precisely the circumstellar habitable zone (CHZ), is the range of orbits around a star within which a planetary surface can support liquid water given sufficient atmospheric pressu ...

of its planetary system. As a result, large satellites of the planet, if they exist, could potentially support

life Life, also known as biota, refers to matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes. It is defined descriptively by the capacity for homeostasis, Structure#Biological, organisation, met ...

. However, it may not receive enough

ultraviolet Ultraviolet radiation, also known as simply UV, is electromagnetic radiation of wavelengths of 10–400 nanometers, shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays. UV radiation is present in sunlight and constitutes about 10% of ...

light Light, visible light, or visible radiation is electromagnetic radiation that can be visual perception, perceived by the human eye. Visible light spans the visible spectrum and is usually defined as having wavelengths in the range of 400– ...

for

abiogenesis Abiogenesis is the natural process by which life arises from non-living matter, such as simple organic compounds. The prevailing scientific hypothesis is that the transition from non-living to living entities on Earth was not a single even ...

to proceed. Furthermore, it is not clear that Earth-size moons can actually be formed in the environment around a gas giant planet.

Name

In July 2014 the

International Astronomical Union The International Astronomical Union (IAU; , UAI) is an international non-governmental organization (INGO) with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research, outreach, education, and developmen ...

launched

NameExoWorlds NameExoWorlds (also known as IAU NameExoWorlds) were various projects managed by the International Astronomical Union (I.A.U.) to encourage names to be submitted for astronomical objects, notably exoplanets. The accepted names would later be cons ...

, a process for giving proper names to certain exoplanets and their host stars. The process involved public nomination and voting for the new names. In December 2015, the IAU announced the winning name was Quijote for this planet. The winning name was submitted by the Planetario de Pamplona,

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. Quijote was the lead character of the novel ''

Don Quixote , the full title being ''The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'', is a Spanish novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Originally published in two parts in 1605 and 1615, the novel is considered a founding work of Western literature and is of ...

''. Although the character's name is more commonly spelled Quixote in English, Quijote is the current Spanish spelling.

References

Ara (constellation) Exoplanets discovered in 2000 Giant planets Exoplanets detected by radial velocity Giant planets in the habitable zone Exoplanets with proper names Mu Arae {{extrasolar-planet-stub