Your Eyes In Space Open the simulation

Exoplanet · gas giant

HD 117618 b

HD 117618 b is a gas giant orbiting the star Dofida. Its year lasts 25.8 Earth days. It was discovered in 2004 by the Radial Velocity method.

Host starDofida
Distance123.2 light-years (37.8 pc)
Orbital period25.8 days
Orbital radius0.18 AU
Eccentricity0.150
Radius8.59 R⊕ · 0.766 R♃
Mass (minimum)55.3 M⊕ · 0.174 M♃
Density0.479 g/cm³
Equilibrium temperature746 K (473 °C)
Stellar flux received50.4 × Earth
Discovery methodRadial Velocity
Discovery year2004
Discovered byAnglo-Australian Telescope

Habitable zone

Inside the inner edge of the habitable zone: it receives 50.4 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 3.6° across: 6.7 times the Sun as we see it from Earth.

In the sky

Too faint for the naked eye (magnitude 7.17); binoculars will find it. Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 43° N. South of latitude 43° S it never sets. It stands highest at midnight in April, the best time to observe it.

Light's journey

The light you see tonight set out around the year 1903. At the speed of Voyager 1, the fastest craft leaving the Solar System (16.9 km per second), the trip would take 2.2 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.