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Entering orbit…
Habitability
0/ 100
Uninhabitable
WASP-12 b rendered in TerraForge from its measured mass, orbit and star

WASP-12 b

Also written WASP-12b, WASP 12b, WASP 12 b

Gas Giant1392 light years awayFound 2008
Mass
467.00 × Earth
Radius
22.00 × Earth
Gravity
0.96 g
Surface (est.)
2,562 K
Year
26.2 hrs
From Earth
1,393 ly
Mass
467.00 × Earth
Radius
22.00 × Earth
Gravity
0.96 g
Surface (est.)
2,562 K
Year
26.2 hrs
From Earth
1,393 ly

WASP-12 system

Type
F-type (White)
Temperature
6,265 K
Radius
1.69 ☉
Mass
1.32 ☉
Planets
1
Luminosity
3.95 ☉

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.

WASP-12 b0.023 AUYou are here467 M⊕
Habitable zone

Star and planets drawn to scale: the star is 8.4 times as wide as WASP-12 b, so only its edge is in view. Orbits spaced as in the star system view.

This planet is spiralling slowly toward its star. Since its discovery, the time between its transits, when it passes in front of its star, has been shrinking by about 29 milliseconds a year. In 2019 a team led by Samuel Yee published new observations that ruled out other explanations. That made WASP-12 the first planetary system where astronomers could be confident an orbit is decaying. The cause is tides: the planet raises a bulge on its star, and friction inside the star slowly drains the planet's orbital energy. At the current rate, the orbit would shrink on a timescale of a few million years.

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

Gas Giant
Magnetic FieldExtreme Activity
WASP-12 b has 86.0% hydrogen and helium, combined with a mass of 467.0x 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: 467.0x Earth (>10x required)

Reading WASP-12 b’s atmosphere

Dominant elements: H, He, O, C, NThis is what a telescope would measure while WASP-12 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.WASP-12 b sits about 1393 light-years away, found by the transit 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.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases — if you buy through these links, TerraForge may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.
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
rotation100
Optimal rotation period - balanced day/night cycle, moderate weather, and good heat distribution

Physical Properties

Mass
467.00x Earth (2.79e+27 kg)
Radius
7.76x Earth (49,429 km)
This planet: 7.76× Earth radiusEarth: 1× (baseline)
Surface Gravity
7.76x Earth (76.1 m/s²)
Surface Temperature
2,562 K (2,289 °C / 4,152 °F)
Rotation Period
26.2 hours/day (slower than Earth)
This planet: 26 h/dayEarth: 24 h/day

Time Dilation

Clocks run 26.0 seconds per year slower than deep space — about 35 minutes over a lifetime

Elemental Composition

How TerraForge built this world

WASP-12 b, from the NASA Exoplanet Archive (found 2008). Measured: 467 Earth masses, 0.0234 AU, a 6265 K F-type star. Composition inferred from a mass of 467 Earths, which is giant territory whatever its 0.04x density suggests, with a day locked to its 1.1-day year, as anything orbiting this close would be.

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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