NASA (Exoplanet Catalog artwork)WASP-43b
A hot Jupiter whose global weather map JWST drew in a single day
Overview
WASP-43b, formally named Astrolábos, is a transiting planet in orbit around the young, active, and low-mass star WASP-43 in the constellation Sextans. The planet is a hot Jupiter with a mass twice that of Jupiter, but with a roughly equal radius. WASP-43b was flagged as a candidate by the SuperWASP program, before they conducted follow-ups using instruments at La Silla Observatory in Chile, which confirmed its existence and provided orbital and physical characteristics. The planet's discovery was published on April 14, 2011.
Source: Wikipedia
NASA: WASP-43 b is a gas giant exoplanet that orbits a K-type star. Its mass is 1.78 Jupiters, it takes 0.8 days to complete one orbit of its star, and is 0.0142 AU from its star. Its discovery was announced in 2011.
Why it matters
- Tidally locked on a 19.5-hour orbit: a 1,250 °C dayside and a 600 °C nightside under thick clouds.
- JWST's 2024 phase curve mapped temperatures and winds around the whole planet.
- Methane was missing where it was expected, pointing to strong equatorial winds.
NASA puts it this way: “WASP-43 b is a gas giant exoplanet that orbits a K-type star. Its mass is 1.78 Jupiters, it takes 0.8 days to complete one orbit of its star, and is 0.0142 AU from its star. Its discovery was announced in 2011.”
Discovery & system
- Discovered
- 2011 · Transit · SuperWASP
- Discovery paper
- Hellier et al. 2011
- Host star
- WASP-43 · K7 V · 4,400 K · 0.58 M☉
- System
- 1 known planet
The system
| World | Period | Distance | Radius | Mass | Temp. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WASP-43 b | 19.5 h | 0.014 AU | 0.93 R♃ | 1.78 M♃ | 1,427 K |
By the numbers
- Radius
- 0.93 R♃10.4 R⊕
- Mass
- 1.78 M♃566 M⊕
- Orbital period
- 19.5 h
- Distance from star
- 0.014 AU2.12 million km
- Eccentricity
- 0nearly circular
- Equilibrium temp.
- 1,427 K1,154 °C
- Starlight received
- 681 × Earth
- Distance from Earth
- 283 ly86.7 pc
- Density
- 2.94 g/cm³0.53 × 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.