Gliese 176b does not exist. Meet Gliese 176b.

The HARPS search for southern extra-solar planets: XIV. Gl 176b, a super-Earth rather than a Neptune, and at a different period
The 10-day planet of 24 Earth masses has not been confirmed. Instead there appears to be an 8.4-Earth mass planet in an 8.78-day orbit.

A very interesting bit of news. In the paper, they compare the HARPS RV data and the previous DATA... and the two look like they're completely different planets. The RV curve seems visibly different between the two datasets, even considering the additional error in the previous data.

The authors of the paper also point out that they're unsure as to why the earlier solution was a 24 Earth-mass planet.

Title confused me however.....this begs the question of how many more planets might not be right if any? I suspect this really applies to planets that are much much less massive than jupiter and ones that orbit m dwarfs and possibly late k dwarfs where a jupiter mass planet would be affect it more than it would around a larger star so that conversely an earth mass planet would also affect it more making the data more confusing when adding other factors like multiple planets and for younger ones flares and there activity.

Also the correlation between super earths and M dwarfs could be a good sign for possible habitable planets and make m dwarfs an even better candidate for DAWN and other missions like it.

DAWN?

Perhaps you mean Darwin?

Yeah I did mean darwin. No idea where I got dawn from.

Yeah, with the apparent death of SIM Planet Quest and the TPF, I'm really looking forward to Darwin.

We all are. IT's the only one left and it had BETTER NOT BE CANCELED!

Gliese 176 c?
http://exoplanet.eu/planet.php?p1=GJ+176&p2=c

The paper referenced for the Gliese 176b parameters makes a pretty good case for the 40-day signal being activity-related, concluding

Quote :

Section 4 however demonstrates that the rotation period of Gl 176 coincides with the longer of these two Keplerian periods. The stellar flux and the Ca II H+K emission vary with that period, with a phase relative to the velocity variations consistent with a magnetic spot on the stellar surface. As a consequence, some, and probably all, of the 40-day radial-velocity signal must originate in the spot.