![HR 8799 c: Photographed, Not Inferred](https://cdn.slatesource.com/1/c/e/1ceafcf7-1d29-4ff5-aaea-fa9c2eedf9fb.webp)

# HR 8799 c: Photographed, Not Inferred

- [Made in Slatesource](https://slatesource.com/@steph/hr-8799-c-photographed-not-inferred)
- By [Steph](https://slatesource.com/@steph)
- Created on Sep 19, 2026

## Gas giant around HR 8799

It is 1.16 times Jupiter's radius, closest in size to Jupiter, and 3000.0 times Earth's mass. A year there lasts 188.9 years, on an orbit 98.2 times Mercury's distance from the Sun.

journey·4 Planets

# HR 8799 from the inside out

Orbit

/

Planet

"gas giant, 1150 K.

"gas giant, temperature unknown.

"gas giant, temperature unknown.

"gas giant, temperature unknown.

Radius

13.00 Earth radii

Mass

3000.0 Earth masses

One year

188.9 years

Orbit radius

38.0000 AU

Distance

135 light-years

🔭🪐📅01.01.2008 – 01.01.2010

01.01.2008HR 8799 b, HR 8799 c, HR 8799 d

01.01.2008

01.01.2010HR 8799 e

01.01.2010

What the archive holds on this planet

0%

A radius from transit photometry. Yes.

A measured mass. Yes.

A density, which decides rock or gas. No.

How far out it orbits. Yes.

A temperature someone observed rather than calculated. No.

An eccentricity, so the orbit shape is known. No.

What seeing it actually provides

Where it is, how bright it is, and a spectrum taken from the planet directly.

Found by Gemini Observatory in 2008.

This is one of the rare planets that has actually been photographed. Fewer than a hundred of the thousands known were found this way, and they are mostly young giants far from their stars.

HR 8799 has 4 known planets. Systems like this are the ones where architecture can be studied instead of guessed at.

# Fewer than a hundred planets have been photographed rather than inferred. Does \\

seeing one directly change how real it feels to you?

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[Every parameter ever published for HR 8799 c, at the NASA Exoplanet Archive](https://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/overview/HR%208799%20c?utm_source=slatesource)