Pi Mensae b

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**Pi Mensae b**
Discovery
Discovered by	Jones H., Vogt S., Butler P., Marcy G., Fischer D., Pourbaix D., Apps K., & Laughlin G.
Discovery site	Australia
Discovery date	October 15, 2001
Detection method	Doppler Spectroscopy
Designations
Alternative names	HD 39091 b
Orbital characteristics
Periastron	1.215 AU
Apastron	5.543 AU
Semi-major axis	3.379 AU
Eccentricity	0.6405±0.0072
Orbital period	2151±85 d (5.889 years)
Average orbital speed	15.03 km/s
Inclination	?
Angular distance	156 mas
Longitude of periastron	330.24±0.67 °
Time of periastron	2,447,820±170 JD
Semi-amplitude	196.4±1.3 m/s
Physical characteristics
Mass	>10.312 M_J

Pi Mensae b is a long-period supermassive planet that orbits around Pi Mensae.

On October 15, 2001, a team of astronomers including Jones, Butler, Tinney, Marcy, Penny, McCarthy, Carter, and Pourbaix announced the discovery of one of the most massive extrasolar planets have yet been observed. It was discovered by the Anglo-Australian Planet Search team, using a doppler spectrometer mounted on the Anglo-Australian Telescope.

Pi Mensae b orbits in a very eccentric orbit and takes 5.89 years to revolve around Pi Mensae. The semi-major axis of the planet to the star is 3.38 AU while the semi-minor axis is 2.59 AU. This planet passes through the star's habitable zone at periastron (1.21 AU) while at apastron, it passes to beyond Jupiter-Sun distance (5.54 AU). The gravitational influence of this planet would disrupt the orbit of any potentially Earth-like planet.

Pi Mensae b is over ten times more massive than Jupiter, the most massive planet in our solar system. It will have 10 times the surface gravity of Jupiter alone and could be incadescent (glowing). The inclination of the orbit is not known, and this planet could be a brown dwarf instead.