astronomy

Gliese 414 Ac

Gliese 414 Ac is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Gliese 414 Ac rather than just read about it. In short: Gliese 414 Ac, or GJ 414 Ac, is an exoplanet orbiting Gliese 414 A, a K-type main-sequence star located 39 light-years from Earth, in the constellation Ursa Major. It is classified as a super-Neptune exoplanet, being at least 54 times more massive than the Earth and about 8.5 times larger.

Key takeaways

Gliese 414 Ac belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Gliese 414 Ac to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Gliese 414 Ac from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Gliese 414 Ac, or GJ 414 Ac, is an exoplanet orbiting Gliese 414 A, a K-type main-sequence star located 39 light-years from Earth, in the constellation Ursa Major. It is classified as a super-Neptune exoplanet, being at least 54 times more massive than the Earth and about 8.5 times larger. Gliese 414 Ac orbits its parent star at a distance of 1.4 astronomical units and completes one revolution around it every two years and 20 days. It is one of the two planets orbiting Gliese 414 A, the other is Gliese 414 Ab, a sub-Neptune.

Characteristics Gliese 414 Ac is classified as a super-Neptune (or sub-Saturn), a type of exoplanets that are more massive than Neptune, but less massive than Saturn, having masses between 20 and 80 M🜨. The planet has a minimum mass of 54 M🜨 and a radius of 8.4 R🜨, both values between Neptune and Saturn. It completes one orbit around its star approximately every two years, and is located at a distance of 1.4 AU (210 million km) from it, too far to be located in the habitable zone of its star, which extends up to 0.7 AU. Due to the great separation from its star, the planet is frigid, having an equilibrium temperature of around −150 °C, comparable to Saturn, which has a temperature of −140 °C. Gliese 414 Ac is as a potential candidate for future direct imaging missions.

Discovery Gliese 414 Ac was discovered in 2020 by analyzing radial velocity data from Keck's HIRES instrument and the Automated Planet Finder at Lick Observatory, as well as photometric data from KELT.

Host star

Gliese 414 Ac orbits Gliese 414 A, an orange dwarf (spectral type K7V) that is smaller and cooler than the Sun. The star has a radius of 0.68 R☉, a mass of 0.65 M☉ and a temperature of 4,120 K (3,850 °C). It is a binary star, having an orbital companion called Gliese 414 B, a red dwarf star that is at a projected distance of 408 astronomical units from it. The stellar system is located about 39 light-years from the Earth, in the constellation Ursa Major. Both stars are too faint and cannot be seen with the naked eye. There is another planet orbiting Gliese 414 A. Named Gliese 414 Ab, it is a sub-Neptune that is located 0.23 AU (34 million km) from it (six times closer than Gliese 414 Ac). The planet has an eccentric orbit and its distance from its star varies between 0.13 and 0.34 AU, which means that it is occasionally located in the optimistic habitable zone. The planet has a radius of 2.95 R🜨 and a minimum mass of 7.6 M🜨.

See also List of coldest exoplanets Super-Neptune Ursa Major Gliese 414 List of star systems within 35–40 light-years

Notes and references

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Gliese 414 Ac

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Gliese 414 Ac claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Gliese 414 Ac before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Gliese 414 Ac ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Gliese 414 Ac

In research: Gliese 414 Ac appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Gliese 414 Ac in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Gliese 414 Ac is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Exoplanets detected by radial velocity, Exoplanets discovered by KELT, Exoplanets discovered in 2020, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Gliese 414 Ac outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Gliese 414 Ac in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Gliese 414 Ac means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Gliese 414 Ac out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Gliese 414 Ac in simple terms?

Why does Gliese 414 Ac matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Gliese 414 Ac?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Gliese 414 Ac.