About WASP-2 b
WASP-2 b is a rare exoplanet. It lies about 499.8 light-years from Earth, has an equilibrium temperature near 1,311 K, spans roughly 12.12 Earth radii and weighs about 295.9 Earth masses.
Its surface is likely an ocean of molten rock.
Rare exoplanet 33 EP
WASP-2 b
RA 307.7256° · Dec 6.4293° · exoplanet
Score breakdown
· 4 badgesRare 46 pts → Epic
- Lava world +14
- Hot Jupiter +10
- Confirmed exoplanet +5
- Gas giant +4
Total score 33
13 more points to reach Epic.
Badges
- Confirmed exoplanet · +5
- Gas giant · +4
- Hot Jupiter · +10
- Lava world · +14
Trivia
What makes it special
- Lava world. Its surface is likely an ocean of molten rock.
Could we get there?
- Verdict. Hopelessly far for any craft humanity can build today.
Getting there
- Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 8.8 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
- Fastest probe ever. ≈ 780.4 thousand years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.
- At 10% light speed. ≈ 4998 years in a starship at a tenth of light speed.
- Distance. 500 light-years from Earth.
Look-back time
- Look-back time. The light you'd see left around the year 1526.
Saying hello
- Say hello. A radio message and its reply would take 1000 years round-trip.
Standing on it
- A year here. A full year lasts just 2.2 Earth days.
By the numbers
- Size. About 12.1× the width of Earth.
- Volume. About 1779 Earths could fit inside it.
- Mass. Roughly 296× Earth's mass — about 0.9 Jupiters.
- Your weight. You'd weigh about 2.0× your Earth weight standing here.
- Density. Less dense than water — drop it in a big enough ocean and it would float.
- Temperature. Around 1038°C — hotter than a self-cleaning oven.
How we found it
- Discovery. Found by SuperWASP using the transit method.
Properties
- density gcc
- 0.914
- discovery facility
- SuperWASP
- discovery method
- Transit
- dist ly
- 499.808
- eccentricity
- 0.0054
- eq temp k
- 1311
- insolation
- 492
- mass earth
- 295.8997
- name
- WASP-2 b
- orbital period days
- 2.1522
- radius earth
- 12.1169
- sys num planets
- 1
How to see it
Like any astronomical target, WASP-2 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-2 b is a rare exoplanet
WASP-2 b scores 33 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 13 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 4 science badges — Confirmed exoplanet, Gas giant, Hot Jupiter and Lava world — 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.