WASP-8b is an extrasolar planet

Extrasolar planet

An extrasolar planet, or exoplanet, is a planet outside the Solar System. A total of such planets have been identified as of . It is now known that a substantial fraction of stars have planets, including perhaps half of all Sun-like stars...

 discovered (with their stars) in the SuperWASP

SuperWASP

SuperWASP is an international academic organisation performing an ultra-wide angle search for transiting extrasolar planets with the aim of covering the entire sky down to ~15th magnitude.-Equipment:...

 batch -6b to -15b. On 1 April 2008, Dr. Don Pollacco of Queen’s University Belfast announced them at the RAS National Astronomy Meeting (NAM 2008).

At 49 pc away, this system is the closest of the WASP-discovered systems: closer to Earth than are HD 17156

HD 17156

HD 17156 is a yellow subgiant star approximately 255 light-years away in the constellation of Cassiopeia. The apparent magnitude is 8.17, which means it is not visible to the naked eye but can be seen with good binoculars. The Sun to star distance is 255.19 ly or 78.24 pc.The mass of the star is...

 and HD 149026

HD 149026

HD 149026 is a yellow subgiant star approximately 257 light-years away in the constellation of Hercules. The star is thought to be much more massive, larger, and brighter than the Sun. , an extrasolar planet has been confirmed to be orbiting the star...

. It is denser than Jupiter.

External links

• http://www.superwasp.org/wasp_planets.htm
• http://exoplanet.eu/planet.php?p1=WASP-8&p2=b