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Epic exoplanet 62 EP

Kepler-1438 b

RA 289.2898° · Dec 40.6816° · exoplanet

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Score breakdown

· 7 badges
62 pts · Epic
Epic 78 pts → Anomaly
  • Earth-sized +16
  • Lava world +14
  • Tidally locked +10
  • Orbits a Sun-like star +8
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • Confirmed exoplanet +5
  • Found by Kepler +3
Total score 62

16 more points to reach Anomaly.

Badges

  • Confirmed exoplanet · +5
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • Earth-sized · +16
  • Lava world · +14
  • Tidally locked · +10
  • Found by Kepler · +3
  • Orbits a Sun-like star · +8

Trivia

What makes it special

  • Earth-sized. Genuinely comparable to Earth in size. Worlds in this narrow band are the ones every next-generation telescope is being pointed at.
  • Lava world. Its surface is almost certainly an ocean of molten rock, kept liquid by the star it hugs.

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. Its density says rock, though lighter than Earth's mix: probably less iron, or a thick shell of water and ice over the top.

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 15 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.

Properties

density gcc
5.15
diameter km
11990.828
discovery facility
Kepler
discovery method
Transit
discovery year
2016
dist ly
3764.2642
eccentricity
0
eq temp k
1490
host star teff
5530
inclination
87.59
insolation
561.12
mag
14.983
mass earth
0.779
name
Kepler-1438 b
orbital period days
2.3194
radius earth
0.94
semi major au
0.0346
sys num planets
1
sys num stars
1
tidally locked
yes
tidally locked inferred
yes

About Kepler-1438 b

Kepler-1438 b is an epic exoplanet. It lies about 3,764.3 light-years from Earth, shines at apparent magnitude 14.98, has an equilibrium temperature near 1,490 K and spans roughly 0.94 Earth radii.

Genuinely comparable to Earth in size. Worlds in this narrow band are the ones every next-generation telescope is being pointed at.

How to see it

At apparent magnitude 14.98, it takes a larger telescope or a long-exposure image to capture.

Like any astronomical target, Kepler-1438 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-1438 b is an epic exoplanet

Kepler-1438 b scores 62 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the epic tier. Another 16 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 7 science badges — Confirmed exoplanet, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Earth-sized, Lava world, Tidally locked, 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.