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Since its launch in 2009, the Kepler telescope has found thousands of planetswith radii between that of Earth and Neptune. Recent studies of thedistribution of these planets have revealed a rift in the population near1.5-2.0$R_{\bigoplus}$, informally dividing these planets into "super-Earths"and "sub-Neptunes". The origin of this division is not well understood, largelybecause the majority of planets found by Kepler orbit distant, dim stars andare not amenable to radial velocity follow-up or transit spectroscopy, makingbulk density and atmospheric measurements difficult. Here, we present thediscovery and validation of a newly found $2.03^{+0.08}_{-0.07}~R_{\bigoplus}$planet in direct proximity to the radius gap, orbiting the bright($J=8.32$~mag), nearby ($D=44.5$~pc) high proper motion star Wolf 503 (EPIC212779563). We classify Wolf 503 as a K3.5V star and member of the thick discpopulation. We determine the possibility of a companion star and false positivedetection to be extremely low using both archival images and high-contrastadaptive optics images from the Palomar observatory. The brightness of the hoststar makes Wolf 503b a prime target for prompt radial velocity follow-up, HSTtransit spectroscopy, as well as detailed atmospheric characterization withJWST. With its measured radius near the gap in the planet radius and occurrencerate distribution, Wolf 503b offers a key opportunity to better understand theorigin of this radius gap as well as the nature of the intriguing populationsof "super-Earths" and "sub-Neptunes" as a whole.

A 2 Earth Radius Planet Orbiting the Bright Nearby K-Dwarf Wolf 503