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Uncommon exoplanet 31 EP

TOI-4961 b

RA 192.5019° · Dec -59.8919° · exoplanet

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges
31 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Tidally locked +10
  • Orbits a Sun-like star +8
  • Confirmed exoplanet +5
  • Gas giant +4
  • Found by TESS +4
Total score 31

3 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Confirmed exoplanet · +5
  • Gas giant · +4
  • Tidally locked · +10
  • Found by TESS · +4
  • 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. Too light to be solid rock and too heavy to be all gas: most likely a deep global ocean or a thick steamy envelope over a rocky core.

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 12.5 it is far too faint for the eye: this one belongs to cameras and long exposures.
  • Southern sky. It rides the southern half of the sky — an easier target the further south you are.
  • 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.

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 12.2 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

density gcc
1.67
diameter km
157425.3836
discovery facility
Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS)
discovery method
Transit
discovery year
2025
dist ly
694.9504
eccentricity
0.182
eq temp k
919
host star teff
5380
inclination
88.11
insolation
115
mag
12.486
mass earth
572.0911
name
TOI-4961 b
orbital period days
7.4792
radius earth
12.3411
semi major au
0.0726
sys num planets
1
sys num stars
1
tidally locked
yes
tidally locked inferred
yes

About TOI-4961 b

TOI-4961 b is an uncommon exoplanet. It lies about 695 light-years from Earth, shines at apparent magnitude 12.49, has an equilibrium temperature near 919 K and spans roughly 12.34 Earth radii.

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 12.49, it takes a larger telescope or a long-exposure image to capture.

Like any astronomical target, TOI-4961 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-4961 b is an uncommon exoplanet

TOI-4961 b scores 31 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 3 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Confirmed exoplanet, Gas giant, Tidally locked, Found by TESS 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.