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Uncommon exoplanet 27 EP

WASP-117 b

RA 36.7758° · Dec -50.2844° · exoplanet

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges
27 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Hot Jupiter +10
  • Orbits a Sun-like star +8
  • Confirmed exoplanet +5
  • Gas giant +4
Total score 27

7 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Confirmed exoplanet · +5
  • Gas giant · +4
  • Hot Jupiter · +10
  • Orbits a Sun-like star · +8

Trivia

Hard to believe

  • It would float. It is less dense than water. Drop it in a big enough ocean and the whole world would bob on the surface.

What it actually is

  • Hugging its star. It orbits closer to its star than Mercury does to the Sun, completing a lap in less time than Mercury takes.
  • What it is made of. Lighter than Neptune — a puffed-up ball of hydrogen and helium with no surface anywhere on it to stand on.

Sense of scale

  • In perspective. Far away by human standards, yet still a local address inside the Milky Way's spiral arms.

Find it in the sky

  • How to spot it. At magnitude 10.1 you'll want a small backyard telescope.
  • Southern sky. It rides the southern half of the sky — an easier target the further south you are.
  • Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around October — that's when to go looking.

Could we get there?

  • Verdict. Hopelessly far for any craft humanity can build today.

Properties

density gcc
0.3445
diameter km
151563.3005
discovery facility
SuperWASP
discovery method
Transit
discovery year
2014
dist ly
515.2058
eccentricity
0.3
eq temp k
1001
host star teff
6040
inclination
89.14
insolation
706.3929
mag
10.139
mass earth
95.349
name
WASP-117 b
orbital period days
10.0216
radius earth
11.8815
semi major au
0.0946
spect
F9
sys num planets
1
sys num stars
1

About WASP-117 b

WASP-117 b is an uncommon exoplanet. It lies about 515.2 light-years from Earth, shines at apparent magnitude 10.14, has spectral type F9 and has an equilibrium temperature near 1,001 K.

It orbits closer to its star than Mercury does to the Sun, completing a lap in less time than Mercury takes.

How to see it

At apparent magnitude 10.14, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, WASP-117 b is best seen from a dark site away from city lights, and when it is above the horizon depends on your latitude and the time of year. The visibility panel above works out tonight's viewing window for your saved location.

Why WASP-117 b is an uncommon exoplanet

WASP-117 b scores 27 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 7 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Confirmed exoplanet, Gas giant, Hot Jupiter and Orbits a Sun-like star — each earned for a real, measurable property of the object. Rarity on Spacedle is never random: the more remarkable an object's astrophysics, the more badges it collects, the higher it scores, and the rarer it ranks.