Sancho

One of the four known planets orbiting Mu Arae, a relatively Sun-like star some 51 light years from the Solar System. Mu Arae has been given the proper name of Cervantes after the Spanish writer, and its four planets each bear the name of a character from Cervantes' Don Quixote. The planet Sancho is named for Sancho Panza, the long-suffering squire of Don Quixote in the story.

Sancho is the outermost of the four planets of Cervantes by some considerable degree. The other three planets (Dulcinea, Rocinante and Quijote) pursue closer orbits around the star, all within a maximum radius of 1.5 AU. Sancho, meanwhile, follows a path averaging some 5.2 AU from its star, a distance comparable to that of Jupiter from the Sun. Its orbital period is also similar to Jupiter's: Sancho takes a little under twelve years to complete each orbit around Cervantes.

Sancho is an extremely massive gas giant planet. With a mass some 1.8 times that of Jupiter, it appears to be the most massive of Cervantes' four planets, though the inner planet Quijote (which is also a gas giant) is only marginally less massive.