WASP-8b
WASP-8b is an exoplanet orbiting the star WASP-8A in the constellation of Sculptor. The star is similar to the Sun and forms a binary star with a red dwarf star of half the Sun's mass that orbits WASP-8A 4.5 arcseconds away. The system is away and is therefore located closer to Earth than many other star systems that are known to feature planets similar to WASP-8b. The planet and its parent star were discovered in the SuperWASP batch -6b to -15b. On 1 April 2008, Dr. Don Pollacco of Queen's University Belfast announced them at the RAS National Astronomy Meeting.
Orbit
The planet orbits WASP-8A at an average distance of just and a year passes in slightly more than 8.1 days on WASP-8b, which is somewhat farther from its parent star than other hot Jupiter planets. However, WASP-8b's orbit also has a relatively high eccentricity of 0.3, which, at periastron, brings it as close to its star as said similar planets are.One thing that stands out extremely about WASP-8b is its orbit-spin angle to its star of : This implies that the planet actually orbits retrograde to the spin of the parent star.
Physical characteristics
WASP-8b belongs to a class of extrasolar planets known as hot Jupiters and has a mass about 2.2 times and a radius slightly bigger than that of the planet Jupiter. Its density is about ; this implies that, unlike similar close-orbiting gas giants, the planet is actually denser than Jupiter.Owing to its close distance to its star, WASP-8b is extremely hot: Its measured dayside temperature is, this is even hotter than its equilibrium temperature of.