51 Pegasi b (Dimidium)
Position on the route: 106/130 · level needed 1400 · journey (Mk0 engine) 351.9 h
By the numbers
| Distance | ≈ 50.9 light-years |
|---|---|
| Mass | ≥ 0.47 Jupiter |
| Year | 4.23 days |
| Discovered | 1995, Mayor and Queloz |
The story
Found by Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz in October 1995, 51 Pegasi b is the first exoplanet known around a Sun-like star. It circles its star at about a seventh of Mercury’s distance from the Sun, with a 4.2-day year: a ‘hot Jupiter’. It was the first clue that planets can migrate from where they are born. The discovery earned half of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics.
In 2015 the IAU named it Dimidium (‘half’, for about half Jupiter’s mass) and its star Helvetios. The cloud tops are above 1,000 °C; in the game it is visited from orbit only.
Missions
- ELODIE (Haute-Provence, 1995): the discovery
- Later spectrographs: atmosphere and wind measurements
Colony note
A gas giant: no surface. An orbital station, Mk3 shield. Orrun territory.
☠ A hot Jupiter: no surface, cloud tops above 1,000 °C. Only a station in orbit can be built.
What probes bring back
- Found by Mayor and Queloz in October 1995: the first exoplanet around a Sun-like star (Nobel Prize in Physics 2019).
- A year of 4.2 days, mass ≥ 0.47 Jupiter: a ‘hot Jupiter’; the first hint that planets migrate.