WASP-17
system
WASP-17 — a hot F-type star ~1,320 light-years away in Scorpius, host to WASP-17 b: one of the PUFFIEST, least-dense planets known — bigger than Jupiter but so light it would float on water — and one of the first found on a BACKWARD (retrograde) orbit, going against its star's spin. Descend to explore it.
Open in 3D viewSee WASP-17 in the live, interactive 3D map
Science
Classification
- Type
- Planetary system
- Distance
- ~1,324 light-years · its real distance from the Sun
- Explore
- Descend to see the star and its confirmed planets
How we know
- Note
- A real star system, shown at its measured position in the galaxy. Its star and confirmed planets — their measured sizes and how each was found — are on the cards inside; descend to explore them. Distances follow Gaia parallax; planet data follow the NASA Exoplanet Archive.
Discovery & history
- Name
- A designation from the Wide Angle Search for Planets (WASP) survey.
Announced in 2009, WASP-17 b stunned astronomers twice: it is enormously bloated (about twice Jupiter's size at a fraction of the mass, a density near 0.1 g/cm³), and it orbits retrograde — evidence it was flung into a backward path by a past gravitational encounter. JWST later detected quartz nanocrystal clouds in its atmosphere.
Images
Images from open archives · credit shown per image