A Planet Orbiting the Star Rho Coronae Borealis

We report the discovery of near-sinusoidal radial velocity variations of the G0V star rhoCrB, with period 39.6 days and amplitude 67 m/s. These variations are consistent with the existence of an orbital companion in a circular orbit. Adopting a mass of 1.0 M(Sun) for the primary, the companion has minimum mass about 1.1 Jupiter masses, and orbital radius about 0.23 AU. Such an orbital radius is too large for tidal circularization of an initially eccentric orbit during the lifetime of the star, and hence we suggest that the low eccentricity is primordial, as would be expected for a planet formed in a dissipative circumstellar disk.