Your Eyes In Space Open the simulation

Exoplanet · gas giant

HD 162020 b

HD 162020 b is a gas giant orbiting the star HD 162020. Its year lasts 8.43 Earth days. It was discovered in 2002 by the Radial Velocity method.

Host starHD 162020
Distance100.5 light-years (30.8 pc)
Orbital period8.43 days
Orbital radius0.08 AU
Eccentricity0.280
Radius12.5 R⊕ · 1.12 R♃
Mass (minimum)3,130 M⊕ · 9.84 M♃
Density8.8 g/cm³
Equilibrium temperature650 K (377 °C)
Stellar flux received39.1 × Earth
Discovery methodRadial Velocity
Discovery year2002
Discovered byLa Silla Observatory

Habitable zone

Inside the inner edge of the habitable zone: it receives 39.1 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 5° across: 9.4 times the Sun as we see it from Earth.

In the sky

A telescope is needed to see it: its apparent magnitude is 9.10. Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 50° N. South of latitude 50° 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 1925. At the speed of Voyager 1, the fastest craft leaving the Solar System (16.9 km per second), the trip would take 1.8 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.