← Back to dex
Common exoplanet 21 EP

HIP 12961 b

RA 41.6801° · Dec -23.0860° · exoplanet

Loading sky survey…
🌌 View in 3D star map
Tonight’s visibility

Computing the sky for your location…

Score breakdown

· 3 badges
21 pts · Common
Common 22 pts → Uncommon
  • Puffy low-density world +12
  • Confirmed exoplanet +5
  • Gas giant +4
Total score 21

1 more point to reach Uncommon.

Badges

  • Confirmed exoplanet · +5
  • Gas giant · +4
  • Puffy low-density world · +12

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

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

Sense of scale

  • In perspective. Inside our stellar backyard: every radio broadcast humanity has ever made has already swept past it.

Find it in the sky

  • How to spot it. At magnitude 10.2 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 November — that's when to go looking.

Could we get there?

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

Properties

density gcc
0.273
diameter km
168381.84
discovery facility
La Silla Observatory
discovery method
Radial Velocity
discovery year
2010
dist ly
76.2259
eccentricity
0.17
eq temp k
303.32
host star teff
3901
insolation
1.5889
mag
10.25
mass earth
114.4188
name
HIP 12961 b
orbital period days
57.435
radius earth
13.2
semi major au
0.25
spect
M0
sys num planets
1
sys num stars
1

About HIP 12961 b

HIP 12961 b is a common exoplanet. It lies about 76.2 light-years from Earth, shines at apparent magnitude 10.25, has spectral type M0 and has an equilibrium temperature near 303 K.

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 10.25, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, HIP 12961 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 HIP 12961 b is a common exoplanet

HIP 12961 b scores 21 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 1 point would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 3 science badges — Confirmed exoplanet, Gas giant and Puffy low-density world — 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.