Your Eyes In Space Open the simulation

Exoplanet · gas giant

HD 86950 b

HD 86950 b is a gas giant orbiting the star HD 86950. Its year lasts 1,270 Earth days. It was discovered in 2016 by the Radial Velocity method.

Host starHD 86950
Distance684.4 light-years (209.8 pc)
Orbital period3.48 years
Orbital radius2.72 AU
Eccentricity0.170
Radius13 R⊕ · 1.16 R♃
Mass (minimum)1,140 M⊕ · 3.6 M♃
Density2.86 g/cm³
Equilibrium temperature417 K (144 °C)
Stellar flux received4.91 × Earth
Discovery methodRadial Velocity
Discovery year2016
Discovered byMultiple Observatories

Habitable zone

Inside the inner edge of the habitable zone: it receives 4.91 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 1.7° across: 3.2 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 Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 73° N. South of latitude 73° S it never sets. It stands highest at midnight in February, the best time to observe it.

Light's journey

The light you see tonight set out around the year 1342. At the speed of Voyager 1, the fastest craft leaving the Solar System (16.9 km per second), the trip would take 12 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.