Your Eyes In Space Open the simulation

Exoplanet · Neptune-like planet

HD 4308 b

HD 4308 b is a Neptune-like planet orbiting the star HD 4308. Its year lasts 15.6 Earth days. It was discovered in 2005 by the Radial Velocity method.

Host starHD 4308
Distance71.8 light-years (22.0 pc)
Orbital period15.6 days
Orbital radius0.12 AU
Eccentricity0.000
Radius4.12 R⊕ · 0.368 R♃
Mass (minimum)15.9 M⊕ · 0.05 M♃
Density1.25 g/cm³
Equilibrium temperature799 K (526 °C)
Stellar flux received68.8 × Earth
Discovery methodRadial Velocity
Discovery year2005
Discovered byLa Silla Observatory

Habitable zone

Inside the inner edge of the habitable zone: it receives 68.8 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 4.5° across: 8.5 times the Sun as we see it from Earth.

In the sky

Too faint for the naked eye (magnitude 6.55); binoculars will find it. Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 24° N. South of latitude 24° S it never sets. It stands highest at midnight in September, the best time to observe it.

Light's journey

The light you see tonight set out around the year 1954. At the speed of Voyager 1, the fastest craft leaving the Solar System (16.9 km per second), the trip would take 1.3 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.