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Common exoplanet 21 EP

HD 62509 b

RA 116.3288° · Dec 28.0261° · exoplanet

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Score breakdown

· 3 badges
21 pts · Common
Common 22 pts → Uncommon
  • Its star is visible to the naked eye +12
  • Confirmed exoplanet +5
  • Gas giant +4
Total score 21

1 more point to reach Uncommon.

Badges

  • Confirmed exoplanet · +5
  • Gas giant · +4
  • Its star is visible to the naked eye · +12

Trivia

What it actually is

  • 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. Inside our stellar backyard: every radio broadcast humanity has ever made has already swept past it.

Find it in the sky

  • How to spot it. At magnitude 1.1 you can see it with your own eyes from a dark site.
  • 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 January — 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. ≈ 592.6 thousand years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
  • Fastest probe ever. ≈ 52.7 thousand years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.

Properties

density gcc
1.71
diameter km
169657.46
discovery facility
Multiple Observatories
discovery method
Radial Velocity
discovery year
2006
dist ly
33.7245
eccentricity
0.02
eq temp k
549.6
host star teff
4892.63
insolation
15.2164
mag
1.1251
mass earth
731
name
HD 62509 b
orbital period days
589.64
radius earth
13.3
semi major au
1.64
spect
K0IIIvar
sys num planets
1
sys num stars
1

About HD 62509 b

HD 62509 b is a common exoplanet. It lies about 33.7 light-years from Earth, shines at apparent magnitude 1.13, has spectral type K0IIIvar and has an equilibrium temperature near 550 K.

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.

How to see it

At apparent magnitude 1.13, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, HD 62509 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 62509 b is a common exoplanet

HD 62509 b scores 21 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 1 point would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 3 science badges — Confirmed exoplanet, Gas giant and Its star is visible to the naked eye — 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.