Orbit and Mass
Gliese 581 b is at minimum about 16 times the Earth's mass, similar to Neptune's mass. It does not transit its star, implying that its inclination is less than 88.1 degrees. Dynamical simulations of the Gliese 581 system assuming that the orbits of the four planets are coplanar show that the system becomes unstable if its component masses exceed 1.6 – 2 times their minimum masses. This is primarily due to the close separation between planets b and e. For Gliese 581 b, the upper mass limit is 30.4 Earth masses, or about 77% more massive than Neptune.
It is rather close to Gliese 581 and completes a full orbit in only 5.4 days at a mean distance of about 6 million kilometres (0.041 AU). By comparison, Mercury is at a distance of 58 million kilometres (0.387 AU) and completes an orbit in 88 days.
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