WASP-5b is an

exoplanet An exoplanet or extrasolar planet is a planet outside the Solar System. The first confirmed detection of an exoplanet was in 1992 around a pulsar, and the first detection around a main-sequence star was in 1995. A different planet, first det ...

orbiting the

star A star is a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by Self-gravitation, self-gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night sk ...

WASP-5 located approximately 1000

light-year A light-year, alternatively spelled light year (ly or lyr), is a unit of length used to express astronomical distances and is equal to exactly , which is approximately 9.46 trillion km or 5.88 trillion mi. As defined by the International Astr ...

s away in the

constellation A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms Asterism (astronomy), a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object. The first constellati ...

Phoenix. The planet's mass and radius indicate that it is a

gas giant A gas giant is a giant planet composed mainly of hydrogen and helium. Jupiter and Saturn are the gas giants of the Solar System. The term "gas giant" was originally synonymous with "giant planet". However, in the 1990s, it became known that Uranu ...

with a similar bulk composition to

Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the List of Solar System objects by size, largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a Jupiter mass, mass more than 2.5 times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined a ...

. The small orbital distance of WASP-5 b around its star means it belongs to a class of planets known as hot Jupiters. The planetary equilibrium temperature would be 1717 K, but the measured dayside temperature is higher, with a 2015 study finding 2500 K and a 2020 study finding 2000 K. A study in 2012, utilizing the Rossiter–McLaughlin effect, determined that the planetary orbit is probably aligned with the equatorial plane of the star, with misalignment equal to 12.1°.

References

External links

UK planet hunters announce three new finds

SuperWASP Homepage
{{Phoenix (constellation) Exoplanets discovered by WASP Exoplanets discovered in 2007 Giant planets Hot Jupiters Transiting exoplanets Phoenix (constellation) de:WASP-5 b

See also

References

External links