WASP-3b 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 ...

orbiting the

star A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by its gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked ...

WASP-3 WASP-3 is a magnitude 10 yellow-white dwarf star located about 800 light-years away in the Lyra constellation. It appears to be variable; it "passed from a less active (log R'_hk=-4.95) to a more active (log R'_hk=-4.8) state between 20 ...

located approximately 800

light-years 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 1012 ...

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 origins of the e ...

Lyra Lyra (; Latin for lyre, from Greek ''λύρα'') is a small constellation. It is one of the 48 listed by the 2nd century astronomer Ptolemy, and is one of the modern 88 constellations recognized by the International Astronomical Union. Lyra was ...

. It was discovered via the

transit method Any planet is an extremely faint light source compared to its parent star. For example, a star like the Sun is about a billion times as bright as the reflected light from any of the planets orbiting it. In addition to the intrinsic difficulty o ...

SuperWASP WASP or Wide Angle Search for Planets is an international consortium of several academic organisations performing an ultra-wide angle search for exoplanets using transit photometry. The array of robotic telescopes aims to survey the entire sky, ...

, and follow up radial velocity observations confirmed that WASP-3b is a planet. 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. Gas giants are also called failed stars because they contain the same basic elements as a star. Jupiter and Saturn are the gas giants of the Solar System. The term "gas giant" ...

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 mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but ...

. WASP-3b has such an orbital distance around its star to classify it in the class of planets known as

hot Jupiters Hot Jupiters (sometimes called hot Saturns) are a class of gas giant exoplanets that are inferred to be physically similar to Jupiter but that have very short orbital periods (). The close proximity to their stars and high surface-atmosphere tem ...

and has an atmospheric temperature of approximately 1983 K. WASP-3b undergoes no detectable gravitational tugging from other bodies in this system. The study in 2012, utilizing a

Rossiter–McLaughlin effect The Rossiter–McLaughlin effect is a spectroscopic phenomenon observed when an object moves across the face of a star. Description The Rossiter–McLaughlin effect is a spectroscopic phenomenon observed when either an eclipsing binary's second ...

, have determined the planetary orbit is probably aligned with the equatorial plane of the star, misalignment equal to 3.3°.

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WASP Planets

{{Sky, 18, 33, 32, +, 35, 39, 42, 727 Exoplanets discovered by WASP Exoplanets discovered in 2007 Giant planets Hot Jupiters Transiting exoplanets Lyra (constellation)

See also

References

External links