The M1.5V star GJ 667C (Gliese 667C) is a faraway member of a triple star system. It orbits the central binary GJ 667AB (a K3V + K5V binary system) at a projection distance of ~230 AU. GJ 667C is known to host several super-Earth planets. In 2009, at the international ESO/CAUP exoplanet conference in Porto, the first planet candidate around this star was announced: a hot super-Earth on a 7.2 day day orbit. However, it was the subsequent discovery and confirmation of a 4.5 Earth mass planet, GJ 667Cc, in the habitable zone of this star (Anglada-Escudé et al. 2012; Delfosse et al. 2013) that made this system one of the most significant planetary systems known to date. The planet GJ 667Cc is the first confirmed potentially habitable planet. Figure 1 shows an artist’s rendering of this system.
Artist’s rendering of the triple star system GJ 667 and planets GJ 667Cb and GJ 667Cc
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References and Further Reading
Anglada-Escudé G, Butler RP (2012) The HARPS-TERRA Project. I. Description of the Algorithms, Performance, and New Measurements on a Few Remarkable Stars Observed by HARPS. Astrophys J Suppl S 200:15 https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2012ApJS..200...15A
Anglada-Escudé G, Arriagada P, Vogt SS et al (2012) A Planetary System around the nearby M Dwarf GJ 667C with At Least One Super-Earth in its Habitable Zone. Astrophys J 751:L16 https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2012ApJ...751L..16A
Anglada-Escudé G et al (2013) A dynamically-packed planetary system around GJ 667C with three super-Earths in its habitable zone. Astron Astrophys 556:A126 https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013A&A...556A.126A
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Delfosse X, Bonfils X, Forveille T et al (2013) The HARPS search for southern extra-solar planets. XXXIII. Super-Earths around the M-dwarf neighbors Gl 433 and Gl 667C. Astron Astrophys 553:A8 https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013A&A...553A...8D
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Haghighipour, N. (2023). GJ 667C: First System with Multiple Super-Earth Candidates in the Habitable Zone. In: Gargaud, M., et al. Encyclopedia of Astrobiology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-65093-6_5299
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