This type of massive terrestrial planet could be formed in the inner part of the Gliese 876 system from material pushed towards the star by the inward migration of the gas giants.

[6] In this model, the planet would have a pressurised ocean of water (in the form of a supercritical fluid) separated from the silicate core by a layer of ice kept frozen by the high pressures in the planetary interior.

In comparison, the Sun is about 4.6 billion years old[9] and has a surface temperature of 5778 K.[10] Gliese 876 d is located in an orbit with a semimajor axis of only 0.0208 AU (3.11 million km).

At this distance from the star, tidal interactions should in theory circularize the orbit; however, measurements reveal that it has a high eccentricity of 0.207, comparable to that of Mercury in the Solar System.

[4] Models predict that, if its non-Keplerian orbit could be averaged to a Keplerian eccentricity of 0.28, then tidal heating would play a significant role in the planet's geology to the point of keeping it completely molten.

The planet, designated Gliese 876 d, was announced on June 13, 2005 by a team led by Eugenio Rivera and was estimated to have a mass approximately 7.5 times that of Earth.