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Rare exoplanet 47 EP

WASP-126 b

RA 63.3747° · Dec -69.2266° · exoplanet

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Score breakdown

· 6 badges
47 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Lava world +14
  • Tidally locked +10
  • Orbits a Sun-like star +8
  • Multi-planet system +6
  • Confirmed exoplanet +5
  • Gas giant +4
Total score 47

3 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Confirmed exoplanet · +5
  • Gas giant · +4
  • Lava world · +14
  • Tidally locked · +10
  • Multi-planet system · +6
  • Orbits a Sun-like star · +8

Trivia

What makes it special

  • Lava world. Its surface is almost certainly an ocean of molten rock, kept liquid by the star it hugs.

Hard to believe

  • It would float. It is less dense than water. Drop it in a big enough ocean and the whole world would bob on the surface.

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. Lighter than Neptune — a puffed-up ball of hydrogen and helium with no surface anywhere on it to stand on.
  • Crowded system. One of at least 2 planets orbiting its star.

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 11 you'll want a small backyard telescope.
  • Southern sky only. So far south it never rises for most of the northern hemisphere. To see it you'd have to travel to Chile, South Africa or Australia.

Properties

density gcc
0.41
diameter km
134113.4278
discovery facility
SuperWASP-South
discovery method
Transit
discovery year
2016
dist ly
706.2125
eccentricity
0.18
eq temp k
1480
host star teff
5800
inclination
89.51
insolation
759.3374
mag
10.994
mass earth
90.3
name
WASP-126 b
orbital period days
3.2888
radius earth
10.5136
semi major au
0.0449
spect
G2
sys num planets
2
sys num stars
1
tidally locked
yes
tidally locked inferred
yes

About WASP-126 b

WASP-126 b is a rare exoplanet. It lies about 706.2 light-years from Earth, shines at apparent magnitude 10.99, has spectral type G2 and has an equilibrium temperature near 1,480 K.

Its surface is almost certainly an ocean of molten rock, kept liquid by the star it hugs.

How to see it

At apparent magnitude 10.99, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, WASP-126 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 WASP-126 b is a rare exoplanet

WASP-126 b scores 47 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 3 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 6 science badges — Confirmed exoplanet, Gas giant, Lava world, Tidally locked, Multi-planet system 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.