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Rare exoplanet 44 EP

Kepler-87 c

RA 297.9168° · Dec 46.9651° · exoplanet

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Score breakdown

· 7 badges
44 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Puffy low-density world +12
  • Orbits a Sun-like star +8
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • Multi-planet system +6
  • Confirmed exoplanet +5
  • Gas giant +4
  • Found by Kepler +3
Total score 44

6 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Confirmed exoplanet · +5
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • Gas giant · +4
  • Puffy low-density world · +12
  • Multi-planet system · +6
  • Found by Kepler · +3
  • Orbits a Sun-like star · +8

Trivia

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.
  • 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 14.7 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.

Properties

density gcc
0.152
diameter km
78323.068
discovery facility
Kepler
discovery method
Transit
discovery year
2013
dist ly
4021.1773
eccentricity
0.039
eq temp k
403
host star teff
5600
inclination
89.588
insolation
4.656
mag
14.681
mass earth
6.4
name
Kepler-87 c
orbital period days
191.2318
radius earth
6.14
semi major au
0.676
sys num planets
2
sys num stars
1

About Kepler-87 c

Kepler-87 c is a rare exoplanet. It lies about 4,021.2 light-years from Earth, shines at apparent magnitude 14.68, has an equilibrium temperature near 403 K and spans roughly 6.14 Earth radii.

Lighter than Neptune — a puffed-up ball of hydrogen and helium with no surface anywhere on it to stand on.

How to see it

At apparent magnitude 14.68, it takes a larger telescope or a long-exposure image to capture.

Like any astronomical target, Kepler-87 c 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-87 c is a rare exoplanet

Kepler-87 c scores 44 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 6 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 7 science badges — Confirmed exoplanet, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Gas giant, Puffy low-density world, Multi-planet system, 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.