Confirmed Exoplanet Discovered 2020

WD 1856+534 b

A gas giant orbiting the k-type orange WD 1856+534, located approximately 80.7 light-years from Earth.

Key parameters at a glance

  • A radius of 10.40 Earth radii
  • A mass of 4,386.05 Earth masses
  • Surface gravity around 40.55 g
  • An orbital period of 1.408 days
  • Semi-major axis 0.0204 AU
  • Equilibrium temperature 163 K (-110 °C)
  • Distance from Earth 80.68 light-years
  • Earth Similarity Index 0.258
  • Travel time at Voyager 1 speed 1,422,750 years
  • Almost certainly tidally locked to its host star given the close orbit

WD 1856+534 b Planet Profile

Physical Specs

Radius
10.40 R⊕
Radius (Jupiter)
0.928 R♃
Mass
4,386.05 M⊕
Mass (Jupiter)
13.800 M♃
Density
21.40 g/cm³
Surface Gravity
40.55 g (Earth)

Classification

Planet Type

Gas Giant

ESI Score 0.258
HZ Position Outer
Controversial No

Discovery

Year 2020
Method Transit
Facility Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS)
Telescope 0.1 m TESS Telescope

Size rank in cohort

Rank by radius

#1739of 1771

top 98.1%

This planet

10.40R⊕

Gas Giant median

13.52R⊕

Nearest-size peers

Metric Earth WD 1856+534 b Jupiter
Radius (R⊕)1.0010.4011.21
Mass (M⊕)1.004,386.05317.83
Density (g/cm³)5.5121.401.33
Surface Gravity (g)1.0040.552.53
Insolation (S⊕)1.000.180.037

Alternative Mass Estimates

Method Value Interpretation
Best measured mass 4,386.054 M⊕ Direct mass measurement (not derived).

Star Catalogue Identifiers

TIC

TIC 267574918

Gaia DR2

Gaia DR2 2146576589564898688

Gaia DR3

Gaia DR3 2146576589564898688

System

WD 1856+534

Percentile among Gas Giant cohort

Radius 10.400 R⊕ · percentile 2 / cohort 1771
Mass 4,386.054 M⊕ · percentile 93 / cohort 1747
Orbital period 1.41 d · percentile 2 / cohort 1533
Distance 24.74 pc · percentile 5 / cohort 1759
ESI 0.258 · percentile 47 / cohort 1771

Orbit & Habitability

Orbital Dynamics

Period
1.408 days
Semi-major axis
0.0204 AU
Eccentricity
0.000
Inclination
88.78 °

Year Length

A year here lasts approximately 1.41 Earth days (0.4% of a terrestrial year) on a nearly circular orbit at a mean orbital distance of 0.0204 AU.

Transit Fingerprint

Depth

56.650 %

Duration

0.133 h

Impact parameter b

7.160

Rp / R★

7.280000

Transit midpoint (BJD)

2,458,779.3751

Photometric dip

Transit produces a flux drop of 566,500 ppm lasting ≈ 0.13 h.

Extended Orbital Architecture

Planet / star radius ratio

7.280000

Semi-major axis / stellar radius

336.000

Impact parameter (b)

7.160

Transit mid-time (BJD)

2,458,779.3751

Angular separation (arcsec)

0.82500

Eq. Temperature

163K

(-110 °C)

Insolation (S⊕)

0.18

Earth = 1.00

Earth Similarity (ESI)

0.258

0 = alien, 1 = Earth-identical

Beyond the outer HZ boundary (too cold) — surface water would be frozen. Close-orbiting tidally-locked around a cool host.

Discovery Paper

Primary reference

Vanderburg et al. 2020

Instrument

TESS CCD Array

Publication

2020-09

Observation locale

Space

Host System: WD 1856+534

Spectral Class

K-type orange

Effective Temperature

4,710 K — cooler than the Sun (5,778 K)

Estimated Age

7.93 Gyr — older than the Sun (4.6 Gyr)

Stellar Radius

0.013 R☉

Stellar Mass

0.518 M☉

Metallicity [Fe/H]

Distance
24.74 parsec
Light-years 80.68 ly
V-band magnitude
17.24 mag
Voyager-speed travel 1,422,750 yr

Multi-band Host Photometry — 14 bands

9.617.617.24V16.96Gaia16.34TESS17.60Sloan g16.91Sloan r16.62Sloan i16.52Sloan z15.68J15.43H15.55K15.01W115.16W213.40W39.64W4

Astrometric Data

Parallax

40.398 mas

Total Proper Motion

246.420 mas/yr

PM Right Ascension

240.76 mas/yr

PM Declination

-52.51 mas/yr

Galactic Cartesian (pc)

x = 0.148 · y = -0.576 · z = 0.804

Equatorial (J2000)

RA 284.41568° · Dec 53.50902°

Galactic ℓ, b

83.499° · 20.623°

Ecliptic λ, β

305.355° · 75.177°

HTM-20 index

1640738890

Similar Worlds

Explore Related Categories