WASP-43 is an orange K-type dwarf (about 0.58 solar masses, 4,400 K, 0.60 solar radii), 86.7 light-years from Earth. WASP-43 b is a benchmark hot Jupiter for phase-curve mapping, with Hubble and JWST tracking heat flow onto its night side. WASP-43 b is a 1.78-Jupiter-mass companion, with an orbital period of 19.5 hours, at 0.014 AU from its star, discovered in 2011 via transit. The inner world is a hot Jupiter — a gas giant hugging its star at a fraction of Mercury's distance — a class that forced astronomers to rethink how giant planets form and migrate inward. WASP-43 b skims its star closer than Mercury orbits the Sun.