Confirmed Exoplanet Discovered 2025

TOI-6303 b

A gas giant orbiting the k-type orange TOI-6303, located approximately 496.5 light-years from Earth.

Key parameters at a glance

  • A radius of 11.59 Earth radii
  • A mass of 2,493.00 Earth masses
  • Surface gravity around 18.56 g
  • An orbital period of 9.485 days
  • Semi-major axis 0.0761 AU
  • Equilibrium temperature 541 K (268 °C)
  • Distance from Earth 496.47 light-years
  • Earth Similarity Index 0.301
  • Travel time at Voyager 1 speed 8,755,273 years
  • Almost certainly tidally locked to its host star given the close orbit

TOI-6303 b Planet Profile

Physical Specs

Radius
11.59 R⊕
Radius (Jupiter)
1.034 R♃
Mass
2,493.00 M⊕
Mass (Jupiter)
7.840 M♃
Density
8.82 g/cm³
Surface Gravity
18.56 g (Earth)

Classification

Planet Type

Gas Giant

ESI Score 0.301
HZ Position Inner
Controversial No

Discovery

Year 2025
Method Transit
Facility Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS)
Telescope 0.1 m TESS Telescope

Size rank in cohort

Rank by radius

#1580of 1771

top 89.2%

This planet

11.59R⊕

Gas Giant median

13.52R⊕

Nearest-size peers

Metric Earth TOI-6303 b Jupiter
Radius (R⊕)1.0011.5911.21
Mass (M⊕)1.002,493.00317.83
Density (g/cm³)5.518.821.33
Surface Gravity (g)1.0018.562.53
Insolation (S⊕)1.0014.280.037

Alternative Mass Estimates

Method Value Interpretation
Best measured mass 2,493.000 M⊕ Direct mass measurement (not derived).

Star Catalogue Identifiers

TIC

TIC 186810676

Gaia DR2

Gaia DR2 239050153051494272

Gaia DR3

Gaia DR3 239050153051494272

System

TOI-6303

Percentile among Gas Giant cohort

Radius 11.590 R⊕ · percentile 11 / cohort 1771
Mass 2,493.000 M⊕ · percentile 83 / cohort 1747
Orbital period 9.49 d · percentile 44 / cohort 1533
Distance 152.22 pc · percentile 44 / cohort 1759
ESI 0.301 · percentile 59 / cohort 1771

Orbit & Habitability

Orbital Dynamics

Period
9.485 days
Semi-major axis
0.0761 AU
Eccentricity
0.020
Inclination
89.03 °

Year Length

A year here lasts approximately 9.49 Earth days (2.6% of a terrestrial year) on a nearly circular orbit at a mean orbital distance of 0.0761 AU.

Transit Fingerprint

Depth

3.242 %

Duration

2.918 h

Impact parameter b

0.450

Rp / R★

0.175000

Transit midpoint (BJD)

2,459,901.0144

Photometric dip

Transit produces a flux drop of 32,417 ppm lasting ≈ 2.92 h.

Extended Orbital Architecture

Planet / star radius ratio

0.175000

Semi-major axis / stellar radius

26.950

Impact parameter (b)

0.450

RV semi-amplitude (K)

1,000.000 m/s

Transit mid-time (BJD)

2,459,901.0144

Long. of periastron (ω)

117.00°

Angular separation (arcsec)

0.50000

Eq. Temperature

541K

(268 °C)

Insolation (S⊕)

14.28

Earth = 1.00

Earth Similarity (ESI)

0.301

0 = alien, 1 = Earth-identical

Inside the inner HZ boundary (too hot for liquid water) — the surface is too hot to retain surface water. Close-orbiting tidally-locked around a cool host.

Detection Signatures

Transit photometry

A transit dip has been observed from at least one telescope.

Radial velocity

Stellar wobble has been measured spectroscopically.

Discovery Paper

Primary reference

Hotnisky et al. 2025

Instrument

TESS CCD Array

Publication

2025-07

Observation locale

Space

Host System: TOI-6303

Spectral Class

K-type orange

Effective Temperature

3,977 K — cooler than the Sun (5,778 K)

Estimated Age

6.40 Gyr — older than the Sun (4.6 Gyr)

Stellar Radius

0.609 R☉

Stellar Mass

0.644 M☉

Metallicity [Fe/H]

0.44

Extended Stellar Properties

Surface gravity (log g)

4.670 dex

Stellar density

4.010 g/cm³

Rotational v·sin i

2.00 km/s

Metallicity ratio

[Fe/H]

Distance
152.22 parsec
Light-years 496.47 ly
V-band magnitude
14.64 mag
Voyager-speed travel 8,755,273 yr

Multi-band Host Photometry — 16 bands

8.918.017.97U16.14B14.64V13.91Gaia12.94TESS15.89Sloan g14.19Sloan r13.61Sloan i13.38Sloan z11.68J11.04H10.83K10.75W110.79W210.25W38.93W4

Astrometric Data

Parallax

6.541 mas

Total Proper Motion

48.338 mas/yr

PM Right Ascension

32.94 mas/yr

PM Declination

-35.38 mas/yr

Galactic Cartesian (pc)

x = 0.523 · y = 0.557 · z = 0.645

Equatorial (J2000)

RA 46.78065° · Dec 40.14717°

Galactic ℓ, b

149.233° · -15.695°

Ecliptic λ, β

55.703° · 21.714°

HTM-20 index

1241493747

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