WASP-5b
Encyclopedia
WASP-5b is an extrasolar planet
orbiting the star
WASP-5 located over 967 light-years away in the constellation
Phoenix
. The planet's mass and radius indicate that it is a gas giant
with a similar bulk composition to Jupiter
. The small orbital distance of WASP-5 b around its star mean it belongs to a class of planets known as hot Jupiters. The proximity of WASP-5b to its host causes it to have an atmospheric temperature of approximately 1717 K
.
Extrasolar planet
An extrasolar planet, or exoplanet, is a planet outside the Solar System. A total of such planets have been identified as of . It is now known that a substantial fraction of stars have planets, including perhaps half of all Sun-like stars...
orbiting the star
Star
A star is a massive, luminous sphere of plasma held together by gravity. At the end of its lifetime, a star can also contain a proportion of degenerate matter. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun, which is the source of most of the energy on Earth...
WASP-5 located over 967 light-years away in the constellation
Constellation
In modern astronomy, a constellation is an internationally defined area of the celestial sphere. These areas are grouped around asterisms, patterns formed by prominent stars within apparent proximity to one another on Earth's night sky....
Phoenix
Phoenix (constellation)
Phoenix is a minor constellation in the southern sky. It is named after the Phoenix, a mythical bird. It is faint: there are only two stars in the whole constellation which are brighter than magnitude 5.0...
. The planet's mass and radius indicate that it is a gas giant
Gas giant
A gas giant is a large planet that is not primarily composed of rock or other solid matter. There are four gas giants in the Solar System: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune...
with a similar bulk composition to Jupiter
Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet within the Solar System. It is a gas giant with mass one-thousandth that of the Sun but is two and a half times the mass of all the other planets in our Solar System combined. Jupiter is classified as a gas giant along with Saturn,...
. The small orbital distance of WASP-5 b around its star mean it belongs to a class of planets known as hot Jupiters. The proximity of WASP-5b to its host causes it to have an atmospheric temperature of approximately 1717 K
Kelvin
The kelvin is a unit of measurement for temperature. It is one of the seven base units in the International System of Units and is assigned the unit symbol K. The Kelvin scale is an absolute, thermodynamic temperature scale using as its null point absolute zero, the temperature at which all...
.