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Uncommon exoplanet 32 EP

HD 77946 b

RA 136.7776° · Dec 46.6724° · exoplanet

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges
32 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Tidally locked +10
  • Orbits a Sun-like star +8
  • Confirmed exoplanet +5
  • Sub-Neptune +5
  • Found by TESS +4
Total score 32

2 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Confirmed exoplanet · +5
  • Sub-Neptune · +5
  • Tidally locked · +10
  • Found by TESS · +4
  • Orbits a Sun-like star · +8

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Hugging its star. It orbits closer to its star than Mercury does to the Sun, completing a lap in less time than Mercury takes.
  • What it is made of. Too light to be solid rock and too heavy to be all gas: most likely a deep global ocean or a thick steamy envelope over a rocky core.

Sense of scale

  • In perspective. Far away by human standards, yet still a local address inside the Milky Way's spiral arms.

Find it in the sky

  • How to spot it. At magnitude 9 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in.
  • Northern sky. It rides the northern half of the sky — an easier target the further north you are.
  • Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around February — that's when to go looking.

Could we get there?

  • Verdict. Hopelessly far for any craft humanity can build today.

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 5.7 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

density gcc
2.44
diameter km
36947.8389
discovery facility
Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS)
discovery method
Transit
discovery year
2024
dist ly
324.3654
eccentricity
0.211
eq temp k
1128.86
host star teff
6007
inclination
87.79
insolation
413.1008
mag
8.99
mass earth
10.9
name
HD 77946 b
orbital period days
6.5274
radius earth
2.8965
semi major au
0.073
spect
F5
sys num planets
1
sys num stars
1
tidally locked
yes
tidally locked inferred
yes

About HD 77946 b

HD 77946 b is an uncommon exoplanet. It lies about 324.4 light-years from Earth, shines at apparent magnitude 8.99, has spectral type F5 and has an equilibrium temperature near 1,129 K.

It orbits closer to its star than Mercury does to the Sun, completing a lap in less time than Mercury takes.

How to see it

At apparent magnitude 8.99, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 77946 b is best seen from a dark site away from city lights, and when it is above the horizon depends on your latitude and the time of year. The visibility panel above works out tonight's viewing window for your saved location.

Why HD 77946 b is an uncommon exoplanet

HD 77946 b scores 32 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 2 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Confirmed exoplanet, Sub-Neptune, Tidally locked, Found by TESS and Orbits a Sun-like star — each earned for a real, measurable property of the object. Rarity on Spacedle is never random: the more remarkable an object's astrophysics, the more badges it collects, the higher it scores, and the rarer it ranks.