Gliese 1214 b [SEP] time of discovery
Gliese 1214 b
Gliese 1214 b (often shortened to GJ 1214 b) is an exoplanet that orbits the star Gliese 1214, and was discovered in December 2009. Its parent star is 48 light-years from the Sun, in the constellation Ophiuchus. As of 2017, GJ 1214 b is the most likely known candidate for being an ocean planet. For that reason, scientists have nicknamed the planet "the waterworld".
It is a super-Earth, meaning it is larger than Earth but is significantly smaller
Smithsonian astronomers announced the discovery of a companion extrasolar planet, Gliese 1214 b, potentially composed largely of water and having the mass and diameter of a super-Earth.
Discovered by the MEarth project and investigated further by the HARPS spectrograph on ESO’s 3.6-metre telescope at La Silla, GJ 1214 b is the second super-Earth exoplanet for which astronomers have determined the mass and radius, giving vital clues about its structure. It is also the first super-Earth around which an atmosphere has been found. A search for