Your Eyes In Space Open the simulation

Exoplanet · gas giant

HD 156279 b

HD 156279 b is a gas giant orbiting the star HD 156279. Its year lasts 133 Earth days. It was discovered in 2011 by the Radial Velocity method.

Host starHD 156279
Distance118.1 light-years (36.2 pc)
Orbital period133 days
Orbital radius0.502 AU
Eccentricity0.647
Radius12.5 R⊕ · 1.12 R♃
Mass (minimum)3,000 M⊕ · 9.43 M♃
Density8.43 g/cm³
Equilibrium temperature362 K (89 °C)
Stellar flux received2.84 × Earth
Discovery methodRadial Velocity
Discovery year2011
Discovered byHaute-Provence Observatory

Habitable zone

Inside the inner edge of the habitable zone: it receives 2.84 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 1° across: 1.9 times the Sun as we see it from Earth.

In the sky

Too faint for the naked eye (magnitude 8.07); binoculars will find it. Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 27° S. North of latitude 27° N it never sets. It stands highest at midnight in June, the best time to observe it.

Light's journey

The light you see tonight set out around the year 1908. At the speed of Voyager 1, the fastest craft leaving the Solar System (16.9 km per second), the trip would take 2.1 million years.

Planets in the same system

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.