Your Eyes In Space Open the simulation

Exoplanet · gas giant

WASP-81 b

WASP-81 b is a gas giant orbiting the star WASP-81. Its year lasts 2.72 Earth days. It was discovered in 2017 by the Transit method.

Host starWASP-81
Distance1,300 light-years (398.5 pc)
Orbital period2.72 days
Orbital radius0.0391 AU
Eccentricity0.066
Radius16 R⊕ · 1.43 R♃
Mass232 M⊕ · 0.729 M♃
Density0.332 g/cm³
Surface gravity0.903 × Earth
Equilibrium temperature1,623 K (1,350 °C)
Stellar flux received1,030 × Earth
Discovery methodTransit
Discovery year2017
Discovered byMultiple Facilities

Habitable zone

Inside the inner edge of the habitable zone: it receives 1,030 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 17° across: 33 times the Sun as we see it from Earth.

In the sky

A telescope is needed to see it: its apparent magnitude is 12.47. Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 87° S. It stands highest at midnight in July, the best time to observe it.

Light's journey

The light you see tonight set out around the year 726. At the speed of Voyager 1, the fastest craft leaving the Solar System (16.9 km per second), the trip would take 23 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.