WASP-96b 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" ...

exoplanet 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 ...

. Its mass is 0.48 times that of Jupiter. It is 0.0453 AU from the class G

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-96 WASP-96 is a G8-type star, located approximately 1140 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Phoenix. It is known to host at least one exoplanet, WASP-96b. It was discovered in 2013 by the Wide Angle Search for Planets (WASP), ...

, which it orbits every 3.4 days. It is about 1,140

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 1012 ...

s away from Earth, in the constellation

Phoenix Phoenix most often refers to: * Phoenix (mythology), a legendary bird from ancient Greek folklore * Phoenix, Arizona, a city in the United States Phoenix may also refer to: Mythology Greek mythological figures * Phoenix (son of Amyntor), a ...

. It was discovered in 2013 by the

Wide Angle Search for Planets 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, s ...

(WASP). WASP-96b orbits its Sun-like star WASP-96 every 3.4 Earth days at a distance just one-ninth of the distance between Mercury and the

Sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...

. The hot-Jupiter exoplanet was found via the transiting method by Coel Hellier et.al. in 2013 as part of the WASP-South survey.

Atmosphere

WASP-96b's spectrum was one of the images featured in the initial science release from the

James Webb Space Telescope The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a space telescope which conducts infrared astronomy. As the largest optical telescope in space, its high resolution and sensitivity allow it to view objects too old, distant, or faint for the Hubble Spa ...

in July 2022. The spectrum confirmed the presence of

water Water (chemical formula ) is an inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living organisms (in which it acts as a ...

, as well as providing evidence for "clouds and hazes" within the planet's atmosphere. Prior to this discovery, WASP-96b was thought to be free of

clouds In meteorology, a cloud is an aerosol consisting of a visible mass of miniature liquid droplets, frozen crystals, or other particles suspended in the atmosphere of a planetary body or similar space. Water or various other chemicals may com ...

. While the light curve released confirms properties of the planet that had already been determined from other observations – the existence, size, and orbit of the planet – the transmission spectrum revealed previously hidden details of the atmosphere: the unambiguous signature of water, indications of haze, and evidence of clouds that were suspected based on prior observations. A study in 2023 measured the abundance of certain chemical species in the atmosphere of WASP-96b as seen in the table below. Models of the atmosphere with patchy clouds and hazes best describes the observations through the

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Exoplanets discovered by WASP Giant planets Hot Jupiters Transiting exoplanets Phoenix (constellation) Exoplanets discovered in 2013 {{extrasolar-planet-stub

Atmosphere

See also

References

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