What it’s like to stand here
WASP-120 b
weight
6.35 g
sun
32.5× wider
sky
bright white

Illustration computed from this world’s measured and derived values, not a photograph.

WASP-120 b

WASP-120 b is a confirmed gas-giant exoplanet 1,243 ly from Earth in the constellation Horologium, discovered in 2016 by SuperWASP.

Transit: spotted by the tiny, repeating dip in its star’s light each time the planet crosses in front of it.

WASP-120
host star
15.58 R⊕
radius
1,541 M⊕
mass · measured
3.6 days
orbital period
1476°C (2689°F)
avg temp
Human scale

WASP-120 b is a giant ball of gas with no solid surface to stand on; you would simply sink into ever-thicker cloud. Its yellow-white star looks 32.5× wider than ours, bathing the cloud tops in bright white light. A year passes in just 3.6 days, and at an estimated 1476°C (2689°F) it is hot enough to melt rock.

6.35 g
surface gravity (no solid surface · measured mass)
3.6 days
one year, in Earth time
32.5× wider
how big its sun looks vs ours
bright white
midday sky tint
0.2×
how high you could jump vs Earth
likely
likely tidally locked: probably eternal day on one side, night on the other
Calculate your exact weight on WASP-120 b
Earth Similarity Index0.07#5,383 of 5,788 ranked worlds

How closely this world matches Earth in size and warmth, from 0 to 1 (Earth = 1.0). Computed by gravityfinder. See every world ranked →

What these mean: surface gravity · tidal locking · equilibrium temperature · Earth similarity

If your children grew up herea playful thought experiment
NO GROUND: A DRIFTER, NOT A WALKER

There is no ground here to grow up on, only bottomless sky. A child could never stand, walk, or even fall to a surface, because there isn't one. Under 6.4 times Earth's gravity and pressure that only climbs the deeper you go, anything built for this world would not look human at all: picture something closer to a deep-sea creature than a person, broad and buoyant, drifting through the cloud decks with no need for legs and no floor to land on.

Body plan
Floating, not upright
With no surface and no fixed up or down, a skeleton built for standing would be useless; a drifting, gas-filled body would not.
Build
Broad and pressure-hardened
Pressure rises without limit toward the interior, so anything alive would have to be built like a deep-sea animal, not a land one.

A playful thought experiment from this world’s gravity, not a prediction about any real person. No human has ever grown up off Earth, so no one truly knows; the direction (taller in low gravity, shorter and stockier in high) follows how growing bodies respond to weight.

Hear how a voice sounds herea computed acoustic demo

Your voice would sound a thin, helium-fast squeak.

There is no surface to stand on; this is the sound at the cloud tops, where the air is mostly hydrogen and helium, the lightest gases there are. Sound races through them at about 2,975 metres per second, 8.7 times its Earth speed, flipping a voice into a thin, cartoon-helium squeak. The temperature behind that number is this world's computed equilibrium temperature; its real atmosphere is unknown. The demo plays the shift capped at 1.8x; the real effect would be even stronger.

sound speed ≈ 2975 m/s · 8.74× Earth

A real voice sample, pitch-shifted (tempo held constant) to suggest the acoustics: a playful approximation, not a precise simulation. Voice: Lingua Libre / Vealhurl, CC BY-SA 4.0.

The journey
Cosmic travel advisory
☆☆☆☆
Do not travel
  • !At about 1476°C (2689°F), the daytime side glows: metals run liquid and any atmosphere is being torn away.
  • !There is nowhere to land: no ground, no deck, only cloud that thickens into crushing pressure.
  • !Its star delivers about 1,819 times the sunlight Earth gets, a blinding, sterilizing glare.
  • !Earth-similarity index 0.07: this world has almost nothing in common with our own.

A playful read of WASP-120 b’s measured and computed values, not a real advisory.

How long to get there · 1,243 ly away
Jet airliner
1.5 billion years
dies en route1000-yr cryo: fails
Parker Solar Probethe fastest craft ever built
1.9 million years
dies en route1000-yr cryo: fails
Light speed
1,243 years
dies en route1000-yr cryo: fails
Warp 10
1 year
arrives, just older
Folding spacetimeinstant, plus 1 hr of paperwork
1 hour
arrives thriving
Size vs Earth
EarthWASP-120 b is 16× the width of Earth
Explore from here · roam the neighborhood

Zoom out: star → system → (soon) galaxy arm, host black hole, and a real image of the host galaxy.

Can you see it tonight? · observe
SMALL TELESCOPE NEEDED
Host-star brightnessmag 11.0
ConstellationHorologium
To see the host star4-6" (100-150 mm) telescope
Gear bridge

Matched telescope & eyepiece recommendations are coming. Any product links will carry a clear affiliate disclosure.

Common questions

What is the gravity on WASP-120 b?

WASP-120 b is a gas giant with no solid surface to stand on. At its cloud tops, gravity pulls about 6.4 times as hard as Earth's.

How far is WASP-120 b from Earth?

WASP-120 b lies about 1,243 light-years from Earth.

How long would it take to get to WASP-120 b?

At the speed of NASA's Parker Solar Probe, the fastest craft ever built, the journey would take about 1.9 million years.

How hot is WASP-120 b?

WASP-120 b's equilibrium temperature, the balance it reaches from its star's light alone before any greenhouse warming, is about 1476°C (2689°F).

How long is a year on WASP-120 b?

WASP-120 b completes one orbit of its star in 3.6 days.

Illustration generated from WASP-120 b's confirmed parameters, not a photograph.