HD 20782 b is an
extrasolar planet
An exoplanet or extrasolar planet is a planet outside the Solar System. The first possible evidence of an exoplanet was noted in 1917 but was not recognized as such. The first confirmation of detection occurred in 1992. A different planet, init ...
located approximately 117
light-year
A light-year, alternatively spelled light year, is a large unit of length used to express astronomical distances and is equivalent to about 9.46 trillion kilometers (), or 5.88 trillion miles ().One trillion here is taken to be 101 ...
s away in the
constellation of
Fornax
Fornax () is a constellation in the southern celestial hemisphere, partly ringed by the celestial river Eridanus. Its name is Latin for furnace. It was named by French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in 1756. Fornax is one of the 88 mod ...
, orbiting the
star
A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by its gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night, but their immense distances from Earth make ...
HD 20782.
This planet orbits in the most
eccentric orbit known (as of November 2012),
with a
semi-major axis
In geometry, the major axis of an ellipse is its longest diameter: a line segment that runs through the center and both foci, with ends at the two most widely separated points of the perimeter. The semi-major axis (major semiaxis) is the lo ...
of 1.36
AU, and eccentricity e=0.97+/-0.01.
Selection Functions in Doppler Planet Searches
/ref> As a result, it also has one of the most extreme temperature swings.
See also
* HD 80606 b
References
External links
*
Fornax (constellation)
Exoplanets discovered in 2006
Giant planets
Exoplanets detected by radial velocity
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