Your Eyes In Space Open the simulation

Exoplanet · gas giant

HD 158038 b

HD 158038 b is a gas giant orbiting the star HD 158038. Its year lasts 521 Earth days. It was discovered in 2011 by the Radial Velocity method.

Host starHD 158038
Distance309.4 light-years (94.9 pc)
Orbital period521 days
Orbital radius1.5 AU
Eccentricity0.290
Radius13.5 R⊕ · 1.2 R♃
Mass (minimum)486 M⊕ · 1.53 M♃
Density1.09 g/cm³
Equilibrium temperature406 K (133 °C)
Stellar flux received5.29 × Earth
Discovery methodRadial Velocity
Discovery year2011
Discovered byW. M. Keck Observatory

Habitable zone

Inside the inner edge of the habitable zone: it receives 5.29 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 1.6° across: 3 times the Sun as we see it from Earth.

In the sky

Too faint for the naked eye (magnitude 7.47); binoculars will find it. Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 63° S. North of latitude 63° 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 1717. At the speed of Voyager 1, the fastest craft leaving the Solar System (16.9 km per second), the trip would take 5.5 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.