NASA (Exoplanet Catalog artwork)WASP-17b
also named Ditsö̀A retrograde puff-ball with clouds of quartz
Overview
WASP-17b, officially named Ditsö̀, is an exoplanet in the constellation Scorpius that is orbiting the star WASP-17. Its discovery was announced on 11 August 2009. It is the first planet discovered to have a retrograde orbit, meaning it orbits in a direction counter to the rotation of its host star. This discovery challenged traditional planetary formation theory. In terms of diameter, WASP-17b is one of the largest exoplanets discovered and at half Jupiter's mass, this made it the most puffy planet known in 2010. On 3 December 2013, scientists working with the Hubble Space Telescope reported detecting water in the exoplanet's atmosphere.
Source: Wikipedia
NASA: WASP-17 b is a gas giant exoplanet that orbits a F-type star. Its mass is 0.78 Jupiters, it takes 3.7 days to complete one orbit of its star, and is 0.0515 AU from its star. Its discovery was announced in 2009.
Why it matters
- One of the first planets found orbiting backwards relative to its star's spin (2009).
- Nearly twice Jupiter's radius with a tiny fraction of its density.
- JWST detected quartz nanocrystals in its high-altitude clouds in 2023.
NASA puts it this way: “WASP-17 b is a gas giant exoplanet that orbits an F-type star. Its mass is 0.78 Jupiters, it takes 3.7 days to complete one orbit of its star, and is 0.0515 AU from its star. Its discovery was announced in 2009.”
Discovery & system
- Discovered
- 2009 · Transit · SuperWASP
- Discovery paper
- Anderson et al. 2010
- Host star
- WASP-17 · F4 · 6,550 K · 2.28 M☉
- System
- 1 known planet
The system
| World | Period | Distance | Radius | Mass | Temp. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WASP-17 b | 3.74 d | 0.052 AU | 1.87 R♃ | 0.78 M♃ | 1,755 K |
By the numbers
- Radius
- 1.87 R♃21 R⊕
- Mass
- 0.78 M♃248 M⊕
- Orbital period
- 3.74 d0.01 yr
- Distance from star
- 0.052 AU7.7 million km
- Eccentricity
- 0nearly circular
- Equilibrium temp.
- 1,755 K1,482 °C
- Starlight received
- 1,292 × Earth
- Distance from Earth
- 1,324 ly405.9 pc
- Density
- 0.08 g/cm³0.01 × 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.