WASP-42 is 578 light-years from the Sun. The NASA Exoplanet Archive lists 1 planet around this 5,315 K star; the first was found in 2012 by transit (SuperWASP).
Fly there in 3DWASP-42 b goes round its star every 4.98 days, 18 times as often as Mercury goes round the Sun.
| Surface temperature | 5,315 K |
| Mass | 0.951 solar masses |
| Radius | 0.892 solar radii |
| Luminosity | 0.4356 times the Sun |
| Apparent magnitude | 12.169 |
| Age | about 4.4 billion years |
| Distance from the Sun | 578.3 light-years (177.3 parsecs) |
| Position (J2000) | RA 192.9812°, Dec -42.0736° |
| Constellation | Centaurus |
| Planet | Year | Orbit | Radius | Mass | Found |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WASP-42 b | 4.98 days | 0.0561 AU | 12.576 R⊕ | 167.5 M⊕ | Transit, 2012 |
Values are the NASA Exoplanet Archive’s composite parameters. A radius marked estimated comes from a mass–radius relation; a mass marked minimum is M sin i. Planet sizes and colours in the 3D view are renderings: none of these worlds has been photographed as more than a point of light.
For a star of 5,315 K, 0.44 times as bright as the Sun, the habitable zone, where starlight could keep water liquid on a rocky surface, runs from about 0.64 to 1.15 AU. None of its known planets orbits inside it. The zone says how much starlight arrives, not whether a planet has water or air. The edges follow Kopparapu et al. (2014), as the 3D view draws them.
The light you see left 578 years ago, around 1450.