About Kepler-38 b
Kepler-38 b is a rare exoplanet. It lies about 3,831 light-years from Earth, shines at apparent magnitude 14.02, has spectral type G4 V and has an equilibrium temperature near 475 K.
About 4.3× the width of Earth.
Rare exoplanet 40 EP
Kepler-38 b
RA 286.8303° · Dec 42.2791° · exoplanet
Score breakdown
· 6 badgesRare 50 pts → Epic
- Circumbinary (orbits both stars) +14
- Orbits a Sun-like star +8
- Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
- Confirmed exoplanet +5
- Neptune-like +4
- Found by Kepler +3
Total score 40
10 more points to reach Epic.
Badges
- Confirmed exoplanet · +5
- Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
- Neptune-like · +4
- Circumbinary (orbits both stars) · +14
- Found by Kepler · +3
- Orbits a Sun-like star · +8
Trivia
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 14 it is far too faint for the eye: this one belongs to cameras and long exposures.
- 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.
Could we get there?
- Verdict. Impossible with our current technology — and the next millennium of it.
Getting there
- Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 67.3 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
- Fastest probe ever. ≈ 6 million years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.
- At 10% light speed. ≈ 38.3 thousand years in a starship at a tenth of light speed.
Properties
- circumbinary
- yes
- diameter km
- 54851.66
- discovery facility
- Kepler
- discovery method
- Transit
- discovery year
- 2012
- dist ly
- 3830.9958
- eccentricity
- 0.032
- eq temp k
- 475
- host star teff
- 5623
- inclination
- 89.442
- insolation
- 14.4568
- mag
- 14.015
- mass earth
- 122
- name
- Kepler-38 b
- orbital period days
- 105.599
- radius earth
- 4.3
- semi major au
- 0.4632
- spect
- G4 V
- sys num planets
- 1
- sys num stars
- 2
Nearby objects
- Trash HIP 93941 star · <0.1° away
- Epic Kepler-828 b exoplanet · 0.2° away
- Uncommon Kepler-1301 b exoplanet · 0.2° away
- Rare Kepler-491 b exoplanet · 0.2° away
- Rare Kepler-1376 b exoplanet · 0.3° away
- Uncommon Kepler-152 c exoplanet · 0.3° away
- Uncommon Kepler-152 b exoplanet · 0.3° away
- Rare Kepler-244 b exoplanet · 0.3° away
How to see it
At apparent magnitude 14.02, it takes a larger telescope or a long-exposure image to capture.
Like any astronomical target, Kepler-38 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 Kepler-38 b is a rare exoplanet
Kepler-38 b scores 40 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 10 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 6 science badges — Confirmed exoplanet, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Neptune-like, Circumbinary (orbits both stars), Found by Kepler 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.