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Common exoplanet 20 EP

TOI-1266 b

RA 197.9966° · Dec 65.8337° · exoplanet

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges
20 pts · Common
Common 22 pts → Uncommon
  • Multi-planet system +6
  • Confirmed exoplanet +5
  • Sub-Neptune +5
  • Found by TESS +4
Total score 20

2 more points to reach Uncommon.

Badges

  • Confirmed exoplanet · +5
  • Sub-Neptune · +5
  • Multi-planet system · +6
  • Found by TESS · +4

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 3 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 12.9 it is far too faint for the eye: this one belongs to cameras and long exposures.
  • 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 April — that's when to go looking.

Could we get there?

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

Properties

density gcc
1.54
diameter km
32145.624
discovery facility
Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS)
discovery method
Transit
discovery year
2020
dist ly
117.4546
eccentricity
0.039
eq temp k
415
host star teff
3563
inclination
89.13
insolation
4.72
mag
12.941
mass earth
4.46
name
TOI-1266 b
orbital period days
10.8945
radius earth
2.52
semi major au
0.073
spect
M2
sys num planets
3
sys num stars
1

About TOI-1266 b

TOI-1266 b is a common exoplanet. It lies about 117.5 light-years from Earth, shines at apparent magnitude 12.94, has spectral type M2 and has an equilibrium temperature near 415 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 12.94, it takes a larger telescope or a long-exposure image to capture.

Like any astronomical target, TOI-1266 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 TOI-1266 b is a common exoplanet

TOI-1266 b scores 20 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 2 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Confirmed exoplanet, Sub-Neptune, Multi-planet system and Found by TESS — 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.