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Rare exoplanet 43 EP

HD 68988 b

RA 124.5935° · Dec 61.4609° · exoplanet

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Score breakdown

· 6 badges
43 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Hot Jupiter +10
  • Tidally locked +10
  • Orbits a Sun-like star +8
  • Multi-planet system +6
  • Confirmed exoplanet +5
  • Gas giant +4
Total score 43

7 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Confirmed exoplanet · +5
  • Gas giant · +4
  • Hot Jupiter · +10
  • Tidally locked · +10
  • Multi-planet system · +6
  • 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. 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 8.2 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in.
  • Never sets. So far north that from Britain, Canada or northern Europe it never dips below the horizon — it is up every clear night of the year.
  • 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.

Properties

density gcc
1.43
diameter km
170933.08
discovery facility
Multiple Observatories
discovery method
Radial Velocity
discovery year
2001
dist ly
198.4486
eccentricity
0.12
eq temp k
1179.39
host star teff
5932
inclination
83
insolation
340.126
mag
8.2
mass earth
626.1251
name
HD 68988 b
orbital period days
6.2771
radius earth
13.4
semi major au
0.07
spect
G2 V
sys num planets
2
sys num stars
1
tidally locked
yes
tidally locked inferred
yes

About HD 68988 b

HD 68988 b is a rare exoplanet. It lies about 198.4 light-years from Earth, shines at apparent magnitude 8.2, has spectral type G2 V and has an equilibrium temperature near 1,179 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 8.2, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 68988 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 68988 b is a rare exoplanet

HD 68988 b scores 43 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 7 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 6 science badges — Confirmed exoplanet, Gas giant, Hot Jupiter, 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.