Discovery of Gliese 876 e

Gliese 876 e is the fourth planet found around the red dwarf Gliese 876, in the constellation Aquarius, about fifteen light-years from the Sun. It was announced in 2010 by Eugenio Rivera and colleagues, from precise measurements of the star's motion, and is a super-Earth or small Neptune with a mass of a few times that of Earth, which orbits in roughly two months. Together with the two giant planets Gliese 876 b and c, it forms a chain of orbital resonances in which the orbits are locked together in simple ratios, a rare pattern that helps astronomers understand how planetary systems form and settle.

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