GJ 9404 is an orange K-type dwarf (about 0.62 solar masses, 3,811 K), 23.9 light-years from Earth. GJ 9404 b is a 11.9-Earth-mass planet, with an orbital period of 13.5 days, at 0.094 AU from its star, on an eccentric orbit (e ≈ 0.49), discovered in 2023 via radial velocity. The planet betrayed itself through the star's reflex motion — a technique that first revealed worlds around Sun-like stars in the 1990s and remains a workhorse of exoplanet discovery. The planet's marked eccentricity suggests past scattering events or perturbations from unseen companions.