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Entering orbit…
Habitability
0/ 100
Uninhabitable
tau Boo b rendered in TerraForge from its measured mass, orbit and star

tau Boo b

Also written tau Boob

Gas Giant51 light years awayFound 1996
Mass
1890.00 × Earth
Radius
12.80 × Earth
Gravity
11.54 g
Surface (est.)
1,680 K
Year
3.3 days
From Earth
51.2 ly
Mass
1890.00 × Earth
Radius
12.80 × Earth
Gravity
11.54 g
Surface (est.)
1,680 K
Year
3.3 days
From Earth
51.2 ly

tau Boo system

Type
F-type (White)
Spectral type
F7 V
Temperature
6,466 K
Radius
1.43 ☉
Mass
1.32 ☉
Planets
1
Luminosity
3.20 ☉

Published by the NASA Exoplanet Archive. This world’s temperature and habitability score are computed from this star’s measured luminosity, not from a stand-in for its class.

tau Boo b0.049 AUYou are here1,890 M⊕
Habitable zone

Star and planets drawn to scale: the star is 12 times as wide as tau Boo b, so only its edge is in view. Orbits spaced as in the star system view.

Estimated: this planet doesn't transit its star, so its size is inferred, not measured

tau Boo b, from the NASA Exoplanet Archive (found 1996). Measured: 1890 Earth masses, 0.049 AU, a 6466 K F-type star. Composition inferred from a mass of 1890 Earths, which is giant territory whatever its 0.90x density suggests, with a day locked to its 3.3-day year, as anything orbiting this close would be.

Surface. No solid surface - thick gaseous envelope with possible rocky core deep within

Gas Giant
Magnetic FieldExtreme Activity
tau Boo b has 86.0% hydrogen and helium, combined with a mass of 1890.0x Earth, which exceeds the gas giant threshold.
Gas giants form when massive cores capture enormous atmospheres of light gases. They typically form beyond the 'frost line' where volatiles can condense.
Classification Criteria:
✓ Hydrogen + Helium: 86.0% (>60% required)✓ Mass: 1890.0x Earth (>10x required)

Reading tau Boo b’s atmosphere

Dominant elements: H, He, O, C, NThis is what a telescope would measure while tau Boo b crosses in front of its star: starlight passes through the atmosphere and spreads into a rainbow band. Each dark line marks a wavelength the atmosphere absorbed.Every element absorbs its own signature wavelengths — hydrogen always darkens the same two spots, calcium another pair, and so on. Astronomers match the lines in a real spectrum against a library of these signatures to say what an atmosphere is made of, light-years away, without ever visiting. A deeper line generally means more of that element is present.tau Boo b sits about 51 light-years away, found by the radial velocity method. Most catalogued distances trace back to parallax: as Earth orbits the Sun, a nearby star appears to shift very slightly against the distant background stars, and the size of that shift gives its distance directly.
Further reading
ExoplanetsSara Seager (editor)The field's standard reference: how planets are found, how they form, and what their atmospheres are made of.The Planet FactoryElizabeth TaskerHow planets are made, and why so few of them come out like Earth.Exoplanets: Diamond Worlds, Super Earths, Pulsar PlanetsMichael Summers & James TrefilThe strange end of the catalogue — carbon worlds, molten rock, planets orbiting dead stars.The Little Book of ExoplanetsJoshua WinnHow these worlds are found, and what a measurement can honestly tell us.
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Habitability ScoreUninhabitable
0
Contributing Factors
temperature0
Inferno world - temperatures exceed all possibility of life
atmosphere30

Hydrogen and helium dominated with trace methane and ammonia

Hydrogen-rich atmosphere typical of gas giants
water15
No solid surface — any water is locked in a supercritical mantle and hot ice, not oceans
magnetic Field100
Magnetic field provides radiation protection
geology40
Extreme volcanic activity may be hazardous
Organic Chemistry80
Core organic elements (CHNO) present
rotation65
Slow rotation - significant day/night temperature variations, but life can adapt

Physical Properties

Mass
1890.00x Earth (1.13e+28 kg)
Radius
12.36x Earth (78,770 km)
This planet: 12.36× Earth radiusEarth: 1× (baseline)
Surface Gravity
12.36x Earth (121.3 m/s²)
Surface Temperature
1,680 K (1,407 °C / 2,564 °F)
Rotation Period
79.4 hours/day (slower than Earth)
This planet: 79 h/dayEarth: 24 h/day

Time Dilation

Clocks run 12.4 seconds per year slower than deep space — about 17 minutes over a lifetime

Elemental Composition

A dark ringed planet hanging over the horizon of a rocky moon, its rings lit by a distant sun

New: Stand on Your Moons 🌒

A planet's surface view isn't the only ground any more. Press the surface button on a planet with moons and it asks where to stand: the planet itself, or any moon still in orbit, each tagged with what it became — ocean, ice, carbon, volcanic. Every moon gets its own ground and sky from its own physics: airless rock under a black sky, ice cracked by geysers over a hidden sea, sulfur plains shaking with eruptions, or orange haze you can't see the sun through. And hanging over the horizon, there's the planet you built.

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