GJ 887 d is a super-Earth exoplanet orbiting the nearby M dwarf gj-887 10.7 light-years from Earth. Confirmed in 2026, GJ 887 d has a minimum mass of ~6 M⊕ and a 51-day orbital period placing it inside the habitable zone of its host. It is only the second confirmed habitable-zone planet within ~10 ly of Earth, after Proxima Centauri b.
The planet qualifies under the Planetary Habitability Laboratory’s habitable-worlds-catalog criteria (~70 of 5,000+ known exoplanets qualify) and is flagged as a prime target for future direct-imaging and atmospheric characterization by the habitable-worlds-observatory and LIFE.
Confirmation used 101 new harps radial-velocity measurements plus 12 from espresso on the very-large-telescope. A renewed observing campaign established the host star’s ~39-day rotation period, enabling disentanglement of stellar magnetic activity from the planetary signal that could not be resolved in the original 2020 analysis.
Sources
Related
- gj-887, exoplanet-habitability, habitable-worlds-catalog
- habitable-worlds-observatory, life-interferometer
- direct-imaging, biosignatures
- alpha-centauri-a — another recent nearby habitable-zone candidate