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Uncommon exoplanet 33 EP

Kepler-538 b

RA 297.4866° · Dec 49.6234° · exoplanet

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges
33 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Two suns in its sky +12
  • Orbits a Sun-like star +8
  • Confirmed exoplanet +5
  • Sub-Neptune +5
  • Found by Kepler +3
Total score 33

1 more point to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Confirmed exoplanet · +5
  • Sub-Neptune · +5
  • Found by Kepler · +3
  • Orbits a Sun-like star · +8
  • Two suns in its sky · +12

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. Denser than Earth — a solid world of rock and iron, with no meaningful atmosphere to speak of by mass.

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 11.3 you'll want a small backyard telescope.
  • 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. Hopelessly far for any craft humanity can build today.

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 8.9 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

density gcc
6.5
diameter km
28254.983
discovery facility
Kepler
discovery method
Transit
discovery year
2016
dist ly
508.6599
eccentricity
0.21
eq temp k
417
host star teff
5534
inclination
89.73
insolation
5.07
mag
11.27
mass earth
12.9
multi star system
yes
name
Kepler-538 b
orbital period days
81.7378
radius earth
2.215
semi major au
0.3554
sys num planets
1
sys num stars
2

About Kepler-538 b

Kepler-538 b is an uncommon exoplanet. It lies about 508.7 light-years from Earth, shines at apparent magnitude 11.27, has an equilibrium temperature near 417 K and spans roughly 2.21 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 11.27, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, Kepler-538 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-538 b is an uncommon exoplanet

Kepler-538 b scores 33 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 1 point would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Confirmed exoplanet, Sub-Neptune, Found by Kepler, 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.