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Epic exoplanet 57 EP

WASP-173 A b

RA 354.1687° · Dec -34.6113° · exoplanet

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Score breakdown

· 7 badges
57 pts · Epic
Epic 78 pts → Anomaly
  • Lava world +14
  • Two suns in its sky +12
  • Tidally locked +10
  • Orbits a Sun-like star +8
  • Confirmed exoplanet +5
  • Gas giant +4
  • Blasted by starlight +4
Total score 57

21 more points to reach Anomaly.

Badges

  • Confirmed exoplanet · +5
  • Gas giant · +4
  • Lava world · +14
  • Tidally locked · +10
  • Blasted by starlight · +4
  • Orbits a Sun-like star · +8
  • Two suns in its sky · +12

Trivia

What makes it special

  • 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. 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 11.2 you'll want a small backyard telescope.
  • 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 September — that's when to go looking.

Could we get there?

  • Verdict. Hopelessly far for any craft humanity can build today.

Properties

density gcc
2.84
diameter km
171581.095
discovery facility
SuperWASP-South
discovery method
Transit
discovery year
2018
dist ly
759.8782
eccentricity
0
eq temp k
1880
host star teff
5800
inclination
85.2
insolation
1920
mag
11.15
mass earth
1172.7927
multi star system
yes
name
WASP-173 A b
orbital period days
1.3867
radius earth
13.4508
semi major au
0.0248
spect
G3
sys num planets
1
sys num stars
2
tidally locked
yes
tidally locked inferred
yes

About WASP-173 A b

WASP-173 A b is an epic exoplanet. It lies about 759.9 light-years from Earth, shines at apparent magnitude 11.15, has spectral type G3 and has an equilibrium temperature near 1,880 K.

Its surface is almost certainly an ocean of molten rock, kept liquid by the star it hugs.

How to see it

At apparent magnitude 11.15, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, WASP-173 A 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 WASP-173 A b is an epic exoplanet

WASP-173 A b scores 57 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the epic tier. Another 21 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 7 science badges — Confirmed exoplanet, Gas giant, Lava world, Tidally locked, Blasted by starlight, Orbits a Sun-like star and Two suns in its sky — 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.