GJ 1061 b is one of our closest known exoplanet neighbors — a world circling a dim, cool star just 12 light-years from Earth. That might sound nearby on a cosmic scale, and in some ways it is. But as you are about to see, even 12 light-years is an almost unimaginable distance.
Meet the Star: GJ 1061
Every planet needs a star, and GJ 1061 b orbits a star called GJ 1061. This star is what astronomers call a red dwarf — a star that is smaller, cooler, and much dimmer than our Sun. Red dwarfs are the most common type of star in the Milky Way, so it makes sense that some of the nearest stars to us are red dwarfs.
GJ 1061 has a surface temperature of about 2,953 Kelvin. Kelvin is a way scientists measure temperature, starting from the coldest anything can be. To put that in perspective, our Sun’s surface sits at around 5,778 Kelvin — nearly twice as hot. GJ 1061 glows a deep reddish-orange and gives off far less light and heat than the Sun does.
Because red dwarfs are so faint, planets would need to orbit very close to them just to stay warm. That closeness brings its own complications, as we will see when we look at GJ 1061 b’s orbit.
How Scientists Found GJ 1061 b
GJ 1061 b was discovered in 2020 using a technique called the radial velocity method. Here is how that works. When a planet orbits a star, its gravity gives the star a tiny tug. That tug makes the star wobble slightly — sometimes moving a little toward us, sometimes a little away. Scientists can detect that wobble by studying the starlight. When the star moves toward us, its light waves get slightly squeezed together. When it moves away, the waves stretch out. By measuring those tiny shifts, astronomers can figure out that a planet is there, and get a sense of how heavy it is.
The radial velocity method is very good at measuring a planet’s mass. It does not, on its own, tell us what a planet looks like, what color it is, or whether it has an atmosphere. Scientists have to piece that together from other clues.
Size, Mass, and What That Might Mean
GJ 1061 b is strikingly similar to Earth in size and mass. Its radius is about 1.04 times Earth’s, which means it is only four percent wider. Its mass is about 1.11 times Earth’s, so it is just a little heavier. Both numbers are remarkably close to our home planet’s.
When a planet is close to Earth in size and mass, scientists sometimes call it an Earth-sized or terrestrial planet — one that might have a rocky surface, a bit like Earth, Mars, or Venus. That said, size and mass alone do not tell us everything. Scientists haven’t measured GJ 1061 b’s atmosphere, surface conditions, or temperature directly. We don’t know if it has air, water, or anything like land. Those are questions that future telescopes might one day help answer.
What we can say is that GJ 1061 b’s numbers are interesting to scientists precisely because they are so Earth-like. Finding planets of this size and mass is an important first step in understanding what kinds of worlds exist beyond our solar system.
An Orbit Measured in Days
One of the most striking things about GJ 1061 b is how fast it travels around its star. One full orbit — what we would call a year on that world — takes just 3.21 Earth days. In less than a week by our calendar, GJ 1061 b has already completed an entire trip around its sun.
That speed happens because the planet orbits very close to GJ 1061. The closer a planet is to its star, the faster it must travel to stay in orbit. Because GJ 1061 is so cool and dim, being close to it does not automatically mean being scorched. Scientists haven’t confirmed exactly how much energy GJ 1061 b receives, but the system is worth studying carefully.
One possible concern for planets so close to red dwarfs is something called tidal locking. This is when a planet’s rotation slows down until one side always faces the star, like how the same side of the Moon always faces Earth. Scientists think this might happen to planets this close to their star, though we don’t know for certain whether GJ 1061 b is tidally locked.
Three Worlds Around One Cool Star
GJ 1061 b is not alone. Scientists have found three planets in the GJ 1061 system so far. Having multiple planets around the same star is actually quite common — our own solar system has eight. Finding a whole system of planets around a nearby red dwarf is exciting for researchers, because it gives them several worlds to compare and study at once.
Each planet in a multi-planet system can be very different. They might vary in size, in how close they orbit their star, and in what conditions they might have. We don’t have detailed measurements for all three GJ 1061 planets yet, but the fact that the system has multiple members makes it a richer target for future study.
Twelve Light-Years: How Far Is That, Really?
GJ 1061 sits 12.0 light-years from Earth. A light-year is the distance light travels in one year — and light moves at about 300,000 kilometers every second. In one year, light covers roughly 9.46 trillion kilometers. Multiply that by 12, and you start to get a sense of the gap between us and GJ 1061.
To picture it another way: even the fastest spacecraft humanity has ever launched travel thousands of times slower than light. On a cosmic map of our galaxy, GJ 1061 appears almost at our doorstep. In real physical distance, it is almost unreachably far with the technology we have today.
Among all known exoplanet systems, 12 light-years is genuinely close. Very few confirmed exoplanet host stars sit this near to us, which makes GJ 1061 a special target for astronomers.
Could Anything Ever Travel There?
Scientists and engineers sometimes dream about sending a probe to a nearby star. With our current fastest spacecraft, a trip to GJ 1061 would take tens of thousands of years — far longer than all of recorded human history. Some researchers have proposed designs for faster probes, perhaps pushed by powerful lasers, but nothing like that has been built yet. If you want to get a feel for just how long the journey would take at different speeds, the distance and travel time tool on this site lets you explore those numbers yourself.
GJ 1061 b is a reminder of something quietly wonderful about astronomy: we can study worlds that are impossibly far away just by carefully watching light. We have never sent anything to this little rocky planet, and no human eyes will see it up close anytime soon. And yet we know its size, its mass, and the rhythm of its year — all from a flicker in a distant star’s glow.