AstroKidsEverything in the sky › 51 Pegasi b
exoplanet · orbiting 51 Pegasi

51 Pegasi b

The first planet ever found around a Sun-like star, in 1995.

Also called: the first exoplanet found.

🚀 Travel there
51 Pegasi b — Drawn, not photographed.

What it is

First planet ever confirmed around a Sun-like star (1995); a 'hot Jupiter' with a 4-day year.

Exoplanet: A planet around another star. Every kind of thing there is →

Can you see it?

No. No telescope on Earth will show you this one; it is here to be understood, not seen. It is here because it is worth knowing about — and because leaving it out would make the sky look emptier than it is.

Worth knowing about 51 Pegasi b

On the 100-meter-track scale model of the Milky Way, 51 Pegasi would be about 5 centimeters from the Sun — roughly the size of a lime. Light takes 50 Earth years to get here from 51 Pegasi b, so what you are looking at is 51 Pegasi b as it was 50 Earth years ago. Its year: ~4.2 days.

What it is made of
A giant, Jupiter-sized planet orbiting scorchingly close to its Sun-like star.
How we know: Radial-velocity 'wobble' method: the star's light shifts back and forth as the planet's gravity tugs it around.
What makes it worth knowing
Discovered 1995, the first planet confirmed around a Sun-like star, winning the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics.
How did anyone measure the Earth in the first place?
The numbers
Distance from us50 light-years
Once round its orbit4.2 days

Where it sits

It belongs to 51 Pegasi.

How anyone knows this

Nobody flew a tape measure out there. Every number on this page was worked out from the ground:

Next to it

51 PegasistarNaked eyeProxima Centauri bexoplanetNot observableTRAPPIST-1eexoplanetNot observableThe Milky Wayspiral galaxyNaked eyeProxima CentauristarWith effortAlpha Centauri A & Bbinary star systemNaked eye
📖 How the Milky Way fits together

Then go outside

Not this one. But the sky over your head is full of ones you can see, and the Planetarium knows which.

🌙 Plan an evening outside🌌 Everything else in the sky