55 Cancri c
Planet· orbits 55 Cancri
55 Cancri c - a warm Saturn-like planet (~54 Earth masses) on a 44-day orbit. Its mass is measured from the star's wobble; it has never transited, so its size is a model estimate. Never imaged.
Open in 3D viewSee 55 Cancri c in the live, interactive 3D map
Key facts
Mass
3.25 × 10²⁶ kg
54.5 M⊕
Year
44.39 Earth days
Distance from 55 Cancri
0.247 AU
Science
Physical
- Mass
- 3.25 × 10²⁶ kg · 54.5 M⊕
- Radius
- Not measured
- No transit — radius is a model estimate; no density is quoted.
Orbital
- Semi-major axis
- 0.247 AU
- From the NASA Exoplanet Archive (radial-velocity orbit)
- Eccentricity
- 0.088
- From the NASA Exoplanet Archive (radial-velocity orbit)
- Inclination
- 0.00 °
- From the NASA Exoplanet Archive (radial-velocity orbit)
- Orbital period
- 44.4 days
- From the NASA Exoplanet Archive (radial-velocity orbit)
- Perihelion
- 0.225 AU
- Computed from the orbital elements
- Aphelion
- 0.269 AU
- Computed from the orbital elements
- Mean orbital velocity
- 60.5 km/s
- Computed from the orbital elements
Composition
- Bulk composition
- A Saturn-class planet of true mass ~54 Earth (~0.2 Jupiter) — a gas/ice giant; never imaged.
- Cloud appearance
- Appearance based on ESO/M. Kornmesser's artist's concept. No spacecraft has imaged this world, so its real appearance is unknown — The banded clouds shown are a representation of its class, shown only in Visual mode; Realism shows a plain spectral colour.
Radiation & temperature
- Insolation
- 10.4 S⊕ · 10.4× the sunlight Earth receives
- Computed from 55 Cancri's luminosity and the orbital distance (inverse-square; Earth's sunlight = 1).
- Equilibrium temperature
- 499 K (226 °C)
- Computed model value for its 44-day orbit — not measured.
Discovery & history
- Method
- Radial-velocity detection (stellar wobble)
- Name
- Designated 'c' under the IAU convention that letters a star's planets 'b', 'c', 'd'... in the order they are discovered (the star itself is the unwritten 'a').
Announced in 2004 as the system's third planet, part of the growing 55 Cancri family.
Images
No official imagery available — this object has never been visited and no officially-licensed depiction exists.