We report the detection of a planetary companion with a minimum mass of m \sin i = 0.0771 ~ { } { M } _ { Jup } = 24.5 ~ { } { M } _ { \oplus } to the nearby ( d = 9.4 pc ) M2.5V star GJ 176 .
The star was observed as part of our M dwarf planet search at the Hobby-Eberly Telescope ( HET ) .
The detection is based on 5 years of high-precision differential radial velocity ( RV ) measurements using the High-Resolution-Spectrograph ( HRS ) .
The orbital period of the planet is 10.24 d. GJ 176 thus joins the small ( but increasing ) sample of M dwarfs hosting short-periodic planets with minimum masses in the Neptune-mass range .
Low mass planets could be relatively common around M dwarfs and the current detections might represent the tip of a rocky planet population .