WASP-162 and Its Jupiter-like Planet

WASP-162 is a K-type star 1010 light-years away. Its spectral type places it in the cooler K class, and it is cooler than the Sun at 5300 K. The star is 0.95 solar masses and 1.11 solar radii, making it slightly less massive but slightly larger than the Sun. It is also ancient, with an age of 13 billion years.

One planet is known to orbit this host. WASP-162 b was discovered by the transit method in 2018. During a transit, a planet passes in front of its star from our viewpoint, causing a small dip in observed brightness; repeated dips help establish orbital periods. WASP-162 b completes one orbit in 9.62 days. It is a Jupiter-like planet, a size class that exceeds four times Earth's radius, and its radius is 11.2 Earth radii, larger than Earth's. Its mass is 1650 Earth masses, larger than Earth's and roughly 5.2 times Jupiter's mass. Its mean density is 6.47 g/cm³, 1.17 times Earth's.