Orbit and Mass
HD 40307 d has a mass of at least 9.2 times Earth's; assuming that all planets in the system have coplanar orbits, it is the most massive planet known in the system. The planet orbits approximately 0.135 astronomical units from its primary star, as compared to Earth's orbit at approximately one astronomical unit away from the Sun. As a result, one year on HD 40307 d constitutes approximately 20.45 Earth days. The eccentricity of the planet's orbit was found to not differ significantly from zero, meaning that there is insufficient data to distinguish the orbit from an entirely circular one.
The star around which HD 40307 d orbits has an unusually low metallicity compared to that of other planet-bearing stars. This supports a hypothesis concerning the possibility that the metallicity of stars during their births may determine whether a protostar's accretion disk forms gas giants or terrestrial planets.
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