Your Eyes In Space Open the simulation

Exoplanet · mini-Neptune

HD 42618 b

HD 42618 b is a mini-Neptune orbiting the star HD 42618. Its year lasts 150 Earth days. It was discovered in 2016 by the Radial Velocity method.

Host starHD 42618
Distance79.4 light-years (24.3 pc)
Orbital period150 days
Orbital radius0.554 AU
Eccentricity0.190
Radius3.89 R⊕ · 0.347 R♃
Mass (minimum)14.4 M⊕ · 0.0453 M♃
Density1.34 g/cm³
Equilibrium temperature337 K (64 °C)
Stellar flux received3.16 × Earth
Discovery methodRadial Velocity
Discovery year2016
Discovered byMultiple Observatories

Habitable zone

Inside the inner edge of the habitable zone: it receives 3.16 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 0.96° across: 1.8 times the Sun as we see it from Earth.

In the sky

Too faint for the naked eye (magnitude 6.85); binoculars will find it. Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 83° S. It stands highest at midnight in December, 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.

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.