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Rare exoplanet 39 EP

HD 73534 b

RA 129.8153° · Dec 12.9600° · exoplanet

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Score breakdown

· 3 badges
39 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • In the habitable zone +30
  • Confirmed exoplanet +5
  • Gas giant +4
Total score 39

11 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Confirmed exoplanet · +5
  • In the habitable zone · +30
  • Gas giant · +4

Trivia

What makes it special

  • Goldilocks zone. Sits where it's neither too hot nor too cold — liquid water could exist on a surface here.

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

  • 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.
  • What the zone means. The habitable zone is only about temperature: it is the band where liquid water could survive on a surface. It is a promising address, not evidence of anything living.

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.
  • 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.

Properties

density gcc
0.755
diameter km
174759.94
discovery facility
W. M. Keck Observatory
discovery method
Radial Velocity
discovery year
2008
dist ly
271.7926
eccentricity
0.126
eq temp k
220.25
habitable zone
yes
host star teff
4917
insolation
0.3721
mag
8.23
mass earth
353.427
name
HD 73534 b
orbital period days
1750
radius earth
13.7
semi major au
2.99
spect
G5
sys num planets
1
sys num stars
1

Nearby objects

About HD 73534 b

HD 73534 b is a rare exoplanet. It lies about 271.8 light-years from Earth, shines at apparent magnitude 8.23, has spectral type G5 and has an equilibrium temperature near 220 K.

Sits where it's neither too hot nor too cold — liquid water could exist on a surface here.

How to see it

At apparent magnitude 8.23, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 73534 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 73534 b is a rare exoplanet

HD 73534 b scores 39 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 11 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 3 science badges — Confirmed exoplanet, In the habitable zone and Gas giant — 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.