Gliese 887 — Safekipedia Discoverer

Gliese 887, also known as Lacaille 9352, is a small, cool star called a red dwarf. It is found in the southern sky in a group of stars called the constellation Piscis Austrinus. This star is not bright enough to see without a telescope, even though it is quite close to us.

Scientists measure how far away stars are using something called parallax. They have found that Gliese 887 is about 10.72 light-years from Earth, which is a little more than three parsecs. This makes it the twelfth closest star system to our own Solar System. It is also the closest star in the whole constellation Piscis Austrinus.

The nearest neighbor to Gliese 887 is a group of three stars called the EZ Aquarii triple star system, which is about 4.1 ly away. Studying stars like Gliese 887 helps astronomers learn more about how stars form and change over time.

Properties

Gliese 887 is a red dwarf star, which means it is a small, cool star. It was the first red dwarf to have its size measured, and it is about half the size of our Sun.

This star moves quickly across the sky, traveling 6.9 arcseconds each year. Even though this seems fast, it is still a very small movement compared to the whole sky. Gliese 887 is about half as heavy as the Sun and has a surface temperature of around 3,670 K.

Planetary system

In June 2020, scientists discovered two super-Earth planets around Gliese 887, along with a possible third planet that orbits every 50.7 days in its habitable zone—the area where liquid water might exist. These planets were found using special telescopes in Chile and Hawaii. A study in 2026 confirmed this 50-day planet and found a fourth, smaller planet closer to the star. There might even be a fifth planet waiting to be confirmed.

The planet in the habitable zone, named GJ 887 d, is the second-closest known exoplanet in such a zone, after Proxima Centauri b. It is much bigger than Earth, and scientists are excited to learn more about it using future space telescopes. The star’s movement also hints that there could be a giant planet farther out.