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Epic exoplanet 53 EP

KELT-8 b

RA 283.3054° · Dec 24.1272° · exoplanet

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Score breakdown

· 6 badges
53 pts · Epic
Epic 78 pts → Anomaly
  • Lava world +14
  • Puffy low-density world +12
  • Tidally locked +10
  • Orbits a Sun-like star +8
  • Confirmed exoplanet +5
  • Gas giant +4
Total score 53

25 more points to reach Anomaly.

Badges

  • Confirmed exoplanet · +5
  • Gas giant · +4
  • Lava world · +14
  • Tidally locked · +10
  • Puffy low-density world · +12
  • 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.

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 10.8 you'll want a small backyard telescope.
  • 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 July — that's when to go looking.

Properties

density gcc
0.167
diameter km
231634.4782
discovery facility
KELT
discovery method
Transit
discovery year
2015
dist ly
644.3929
eccentricity
0.04
eq temp k
1675
host star teff
5754
inclination
82.65
insolation
983.3098
mag
10.845
mass earth
209.7678
name
KELT-8 b
orbital period days
3.2441
radius earth
18.1586
semi major au
0.0455
spect
G2 V
sys num planets
1
sys num stars
1
tidally locked
yes
tidally locked inferred
yes

About KELT-8 b

KELT-8 b is an epic exoplanet. It lies about 644.4 light-years from Earth, shines at apparent magnitude 10.85, has spectral type G2 V and has an equilibrium temperature near 1,675 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 10.85, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, KELT-8 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 KELT-8 b is an epic exoplanet

KELT-8 b scores 53 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the epic tier. Another 25 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 6 science badges — Confirmed exoplanet, Gas giant, Lava world, Tidally locked, Puffy low-density world 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.