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Exoplanet · super-Earth

HD 156668 b

HD 156668 b is a super-Earth orbiting the star HD 156668. Its year lasts 4.65 Earth days. It was discovered in 2010 by the Radial Velocity method.

Host starHD 156668
Distance79.4 light-years (24.3 pc)
Orbital period4.65 days
Orbital radius0.05 AU
Eccentricity0.000
Radius1.87 R⊕ · 0.167 R♃
Mass (minimum)4.15 M⊕ · 0.0131 M♃
Density3.49 g/cm³
Equilibrium temperature887 K (614 °C)
Stellar flux received679 × Earth
Discovery methodRadial Velocity
Discovery year2010
Discovered byW. M. Keck Observatory

Habitable zone

Inside the inner edge of the habitable zone: it receives 679 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 8.2° across: 15 times the Sun as we see it from Earth.

In the sky

Too faint for the naked eye (magnitude 8.43); binoculars will find it. Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 61° S. North of latitude 61° 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 1947. At the speed of Voyager 1, the fastest craft leaving the Solar System (16.9 km per second), the trip would take 1.4 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.