HD 40979 is a Sun-like F-type star (about 1.45 solar masses, 6,165 K, 1.21 solar radii), 34.1 light-years from Earth. HD 40979 b is a 4.67-Jupiter-mass companion, with an orbital period of 264 days, at 0.850 AU from its star, on an eccentric orbit (e ≈ 0.25), discovered in 2002 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.