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Exoplanet · gas giant

HAT-P-8 b

HAT-P-8 b is a gas giant orbiting the star HAT-P-8. Its year lasts 3.08 Earth days. It was discovered in 2008 by the Transit method.

Host starHAT-P-8
Distance690.0 light-years (211.6 pc)
Orbital period3.08 days
Orbital radius0.045 AU
Eccentricity0.000
Radius15.7 R⊕ · 1.4 R♃
Mass407 M⊕ · 1.28 M♃
Density0.686 g/cm³
Surface gravity1.65 × Earth
Equilibrium temperature1,713 K (1,440 °C)
Stellar flux received1,520 × Earth
Discovery methodTransit
Discovery year2008
Discovered byHATNet

Habitable zone

Inside the inner edge of the habitable zone: it receives 1,520 times the light the Earth does, too hot to keep liquid water on its surface.

Its star in the sky

In the planet's sky its star is a disc 18° across: 35 times the Sun as we see it from Earth.

In the sky

A telescope is needed to see it: its apparent magnitude is 10.41. Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 55° S. North of latitude 55° N it never sets. It stands highest at midnight in September, the best time to observe it.

Light's journey

The light you see tonight set out around the year 1336. At the speed of Voyager 1, the fastest craft leaving the Solar System (16.9 km per second), the trip would take 12 million years.

Open in the simulation

Data: NASA Exoplanet Archive, PSCompPars. Its look in the simulation is a rendering based on the measured radius, mass and temperature.