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Epic exoplanet 53 EP

WASP-79 b

RA 66.3709° · Dec -30.6004° · exoplanet

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Score breakdown

· 6 badges
53 pts · Epic
Epic 68 pts → Anomaly
  • Lava world +14
  • Puffy low-density world +12
  • Hot Jupiter +10
  • Blasted by starlight +8
  • Confirmed exoplanet +5
  • Gas giant +4
Total score 53

15 more points to reach Anomaly.

Badges

  • Confirmed exoplanet · +5
  • Gas giant · +4
  • Hot Jupiter · +10
  • Lava world · +14
  • Puffy low-density world · +12
  • Blasted by starlight · +8

Trivia

What makes it special

  • Lava world. Its surface is likely an ocean of molten rock.
  • Cotton-candy planet. So low-density it would float on water.

Could we get there?

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

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 14.1 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
  • Fastest probe ever. ≈ 1.3 million years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.
  • At 10% light speed. ≈ 8046 years in a starship at a tenth of light speed.
  • Distance. 805 light-years from Earth.

Look-back time

  • Look-back time. The light you'd see left around the year 1221.

Saying hello

  • Say hello. A radio message and its reply would take 1609 years round-trip.

Standing on it

  • A year here. A full year lasts just 3.7 Earth days.

By the numbers

  • Size. About 17.1× the width of Earth.
  • Volume. About 5044 Earths could fit inside it.
  • Mass. Roughly 270× Earth's mass — about 0.9 Jupiters.
  • Your weight. You'd weigh about 0.9× your Earth weight standing here.
  • Density. Less dense than water — drop it in a big enough ocean and it would float.
  • Temperature. Around 1443°C — hotter than a self-cleaning oven.

How we found it

  • Discovery. Found by SuperWASP using the transit method.

Properties

density gcc
0.13
discovery facility
SuperWASP
discovery method
Transit
dist ly
804.5942
eccentricity
0
eq temp k
1716.2
insolation
1645.9887
mass earth
270.1541
name
WASP-79 b
orbital period days
3.6624
radius earth
17.1497
sys num planets
1

About WASP-79 b

WASP-79 b is an epic exoplanet. It lies about 804.6 light-years from Earth, has an equilibrium temperature near 1,716 K, spans roughly 17.15 Earth radii and weighs about 270.15 Earth masses.

Its surface is likely an ocean of molten rock.

How to see it

Like any astronomical target, WASP-79 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-79 b is an epic exoplanet

WASP-79 b scores 53 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the epic tier. Another 15 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 6 science badges — Confirmed exoplanet, Gas giant, Hot Jupiter, Lava world, Puffy low-density world and Blasted by starlight — 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.

spacedle A daily roll through the real universe. © 2026 spacedle. Buy me a coffee

Sky imagery and survey data courtesy of Aladin Lite & CDS, Strasbourg. Object data from the NASA Exoplanet Archive, JPL Small-Body Database, and the ATNF Pulsar Catalogue.