Discovery date February 7, 2002 Discovery site California | Discoverer(s) Fischer "et al." Discovery status Published | |
HD 136118 b is a brown dwarf located approximately 171 light-years away in the constellation of Serpens Cauda. This object had a minimum mass of 11.9 times that of Jupiter. Due to its high mass the planet is likely to be very hot and possibly glowing faintly. The lower limit on its mass is only slightly less than the deuterium burning threshold that some astronomers use to distinguish between planets and brown dwarfs. Depending on the inclination of its orbit, the true mass could be above this limit. The orbit of the object is located at the average distance of 1.45 astronomical units from the parent star, taking 40 months to complete one eccentric orbit.
On November 25, 2009, its inclination was calculated to be 163.1° and its true mass 42 times that of Jupiter, classifying this as a brown dwarf.