← Back to dex
Uncommon exoplanet 28 EP

K2-242 b

RA 179.8358° · Dec -6.5179° · exoplanet

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

Computing the sky for your location…

Score breakdown

· 4 badges
28 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Tidally locked +10
  • Orbits a red dwarf +8
  • Confirmed exoplanet +5
  • Sub-Neptune +5
Total score 28

6 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Confirmed exoplanet · +5
  • Sub-Neptune · +5
  • Tidally locked · +10
  • Orbits a red dwarf · +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 16.4 it is far too faint for the eye: this one belongs to cameras and long exposures.
  • Seen from everywhere. It sits almost on the celestial equator, so it can be seen from essentially anywhere on Earth.
  • Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around March — 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. ≈ 6.3 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

density gcc
2.34
diameter km
32400.748
discovery facility
K2
discovery method
Transit
discovery year
2018
dist ly
356.283
eq temp k
416
host star teff
3459
insolation
6.3759
mag
16.414
mass earth
6.99
name
K2-242 b
orbital period days
6.5139
radius earth
2.54
semi major au
0.0494
sys num planets
1
sys num stars
1
tidally locked
yes
tidally locked inferred
yes

About K2-242 b

K2-242 b is an uncommon exoplanet. It lies about 356.3 light-years from Earth, shines at apparent magnitude 16.41, has an equilibrium temperature near 416 K and spans roughly 2.54 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 16.41, it takes a larger telescope or a long-exposure image to capture.

Like any astronomical target, K2-242 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 K2-242 b is an uncommon exoplanet

K2-242 b scores 28 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 6 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Confirmed exoplanet, Sub-Neptune, Tidally locked and Orbits a red dwarf — 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.