Gnomon

WASP-43 is a K-type star about away in the Sextans constellation. It is about half the size of the Sun, and has approximately half the mass. WASP-43 has one known planet in orbit, a Hot Jupiter called WASP-43b. At the time of publishing of WASP-43b's discovery on April 15, 2011, the planet was the most closely orbiting Hot Jupiter discovered. The small orbit of WASP-43b is thought to be caused by WASP-43's unusually low mass. WASP-43 was first observed between January and May 2009 by the SuperWASP project, and was found to be cooler and slightly richer in metals than the Sun. WASP-43 has also been found to be an active star that rotates at a high velocity. Nomenclature The designation WASP-43 indicates that this was the 43rd star found to have a planet by the Wide Angle Search for Planets. In August 2022, this planetary system was included among 20 systems to be named by the third NameExoWorlds project. The approved names, proposed by a team from Romania, were announced in June 2023. WASP-43 is named Gnomon and its planet is named Astrolábos, after the gnomon and the Greek word for the astrolabe. Observational history WASP-43 was first observed by the WASP-South part of the planet-searching SuperWASP project between January and May 2009. It was determined from the collected data that WASP-43 could potentially host a planet that transited, or crossed in front of, its host star as seen from Earth. Later observations by both the WASP-South and SuperWASP-North sections of SuperWASP between January and May 2010 yielded a total of 13,768 data points.