Ross 458 is 37.5 light-years from the Sun. The NASA Exoplanet Archive lists 1 planet around this M2 star; the first was found in 2010 by imaging (Las Campanas Observatory).
Fly there in 3DRoss 458 c was photographed directly: it is one of the few exoplanets seen as its own point of light rather than inferred from its star.
Ross 458 is one of 2 stars in its system: the other is drawn where the Washington Double Star Catalog measures it on the sky.
Where the archive gives only a period or only an orbit size, the other is worked out from Kepler’s third law with the star’s mass.
| Spectral type | M2 |
| Surface temperature | 3,965 K |
| Mass | 0.556419 solar masses |
| Radius | 0.562566 solar radii |
| Luminosity | 0.05039 times the Sun |
| Apparent magnitude | 9.76 |
| Age | about 0.5 billion years |
| Distance from the Sun | 37.5 light-years (11.5 parsecs) |
| Position (J2000) | RA 195.1912°, Dec 12.3756° |
| Constellation | Virgo |
Ross 458 B has no spectral type listed, with a computed orbit. In 2018 it was 0.4″ from Ross 458, at position angle 22° (Washington Double Star Catalog, 13008+1223 BEU 16 AB): 4.6 AU on the sky at this distance. The true distance can only be larger.
| Planet | Year | Orbit | Radius | Mass | Found |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ross 458 c | 48898.0 years from Kepler’s law | 1100.000 AU | 14.011 R⊕ | 1907 M⊕ | Imaging, 2010 |
Values are the NASA Exoplanet Archive’s composite parameters. A radius marked estimated comes from a mass–radius relation; a mass marked minimum is M sin i. Planet sizes and colours in the 3D view are renderings: none of these worlds has been photographed as more than a point of light.
For a star of 3,965 K, 0.050 times as bright as the Sun, the habitable zone, where starlight could keep water liquid on a rocky surface, runs from about 0.23 to 0.44 AU. None of its known planets orbits inside it. The zone says how much starlight arrives, not whether a planet has water or air. The edges follow Kopparapu et al. (2014), as the 3D view draws them.
The light you see left 38 years ago, within living memory.