It is the first planet discovered of three confirmed in the system so far, and the second in order from the star.

[2] The planet was discovered by a team of French and Swiss astronomers, who announced their findings on November 30, 2005, as a discovery of one of the smallest exoplanets then found, with one conclusion being that planets may be more common around the smallest stars.

The astronomers published their results in Astronomy and Astrophysics Letters.

[2] The planet is rather close to Gliese 581 and completes a full orbit in only 5.37 days at a mean distance of about 6 million kilometers (0.04 AU).

[2] By comparison, Mercury is at a distance of 58 million kilometers (0.387 AU) and completes an orbit in 88 days.