WASP-95 b

WASP-95 b Encyclopedic Information

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History & Significance

The discovery of WASP-95 b was announced in 2013, a product of the Wide Angle Search for Planets (WASP) project. Unlike the mythological titans of antiquity, this world has no ancient namesake; instead, it bears the technical nomenclature of the robotic surveys that hunt for the tell-tale transit dip as a planet slides across its stars face. While it lacks a connection to Greek or Roman pantheons, its existence is a testament to the modern era of data-driven mythology, where human curiosity has extended its reach far beyond the naked-eye stars to catalog thousands of alien worlds.

Since its identification, WASP-95 b has remained a high-priority target for follow-up studies using ground-based observatories and space telescopes. It is part of a growing census of short-period exoplanets that challenge our understanding of solar system formation. By analyzing the light filtering through its atmosphere during transit, scientists are slowly peeling back the layers of this distant mystery, turning a single pixel of data into a portrait of a world that completes a full year in less than 48 hours.

Physical Structure

Physically, WASP-95 b is a bloated titan, possessing a mass roughly 1.13 times that of Jupiter but compressed into a far more intense environment. Because it orbits its host star at a blistering distance of only 0.04 astronomical units—roughly a tenth of the distance between Mercury and our Sun—it is subjected to extreme tidal forces. This proximity has likely caused the planet to become tidally locked, meaning one side is perpetually scorched by the star’s radiation while the other remains trapped in an eternal, freezing twilight. Its atmosphere is a roiling, high-pressure furnace where temperatures easily soar into the thousands of degrees, likely driving winds of supersonic intensity.

Beneath its swirling, gaseous exterior, the interior of WASP-95 b is likely dominated by a core of heavy elements, potentially including rock and ice, though these materials would be crushed into exotic, metallic states by the immense gravitational pressure. The atmosphere itself is expected to be rich in hydrogen and helium, stripped of clouds that might exist on cooler worlds and replaced by chemical hazes that absorb stellar light. It is a world of violent extremes, where the boundary between atmosphere and interior is not a solid surface, but a gradient of increasing density that leads toward a heart of incomprehensible heat and pressure.