NASA (Exoplanet Catalog artwork)WASP-107b
A cotton-candy giant with sand clouds and a helium tail
Overview
WASP-107b is a super-Neptune exoplanet that orbits the K-type star WASP-107 which is located around 200 light-years away from Earth in the constellation of Virgo.
Source: Wikipedia
NASA: WASP-107 b is a Neptune-like exoplanet that orbits a K-type star. Its mass is 33.02237149 Earths, it takes 5.7 days to complete one orbit of its star, and is 0.055 AU from its star. Its discovery was announced in 2017.
Why it matters
- Jupiter-sized but only about a tenth of its mass, giving it the density of candy floss.
- JWST detected water vapour, sulfur dioxide and silicate 'sand' clouds in 2023.
- Its puffiness is explained by a hot interior from tidal heating on an eccentric orbit.
NASA puts it this way: “WASP-107 b is a Neptune-like exoplanet that orbits a K-type star. Its mass is 30.5 Earths, it takes 5.7 days to complete one orbit of its star, and is 0.055 AU from its star. Its discovery was announced in 2017.”
Discovery & system
- Discovered
- 2017 · Transit · SuperWASP-South
- Discovery paper
- Anderson et al. 2017
- Host star
- WASP-107 · K6 · 4,425 K · 0.68 M☉
- System
- 2 known planets
- Siblings
- WASP-107 c
The system
| World | Period | Distance | Radius | Mass | Temp. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WASP-107 b | 5.72 d | 0.055 AU | 0.93 R♃ | 33.02 M⊕ | 736 K |
| WASP-107 c | 3 yr | 1.83 AU | 1.16 R♃ | ≥ 0.35 M♃ | — |
By the numbers
- Radius
- 0.93 R♃10.5 R⊕
- Mass
- 33.02 M⊕197.22 ×10²⁴ kg
- Orbital period
- 5.72 d0.02 yr
- Distance from star
- 0.055 AU8.23 million km
- Eccentricity
- 0.052elliptical
- Equilibrium temp.
- 736 K463 °C
- Starlight received
- 51 × Earth
- Distance from Earth
- 211 ly64.7 pc
- Density
- 0.16 g/cm³0.03 × Earth
Sources
Image: NASA (Exoplanet Catalog artwork) · NASA media: generally free of copyright · image page
Text: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Taglines and highlights are editorial.