Your Eyes In Space Open the simulation

Exoplanet · gas giant

HD 156846 b

HD 156846 b is a gas giant orbiting the star HD 156846. Its year lasts 360 Earth days. It was discovered in 2007 by the Radial Velocity method.

Host starHD 156846
Distance155.7 light-years (47.7 pc)
Orbital period360 days
Orbital radius1.12 AU
Eccentricity0.850
Radius12.4 R⊕ · 1.11 R♃
Mass (minimum)3,390 M⊕ · 10.7 M♃
Density9.77 g/cm³
Equilibrium temperature382 K (109 °C)
Stellar flux received3.97 × Earth
Discovery methodRadial Velocity
Discovery year2007
Discovered byLa Silla Observatory

Habitable zone

Inside the inner edge of the habitable zone: it receives 3.97 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 0.9° across: 1.7 times the Sun as we see it from Earth.

In the sky

Visible to the naked eye under a dark sky (apparent magnitude 6.50). Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 71° N. South of latitude 71° S 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 1870. At the speed of Voyager 1, the fastest craft leaving the Solar System (16.9 km per second), the trip would take 2.8 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.