Rare exoplanet 40 EP

K2-9 b

RA 176.2637° · Dec 0.0054° · exoplanet

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Score breakdown

· 3 badges

40 pts · Rare

Rare 46 pts → Epic

In the habitable zone +30
Confirmed exoplanet +5
Sub-Neptune +5

Total score 40

6 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

Confirmed exoplanet · +5
In the habitable zone · +30
Sub-Neptune · +5

Trivia

What makes it special

Goldilocks zone. Sits where it's neither too hot nor too cold — liquid water could exist.

Could we get there?

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

Getting there

Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 4.8 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
Fastest probe ever. ≈ 422.5 thousand years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.
At 10% light speed. ≈ 2706 years in a starship at a tenth of light speed.
Distance. 271 light-years from Earth.

Look-back time

Look-back time. The light you'd see left around the year 1755.

Saying hello

Say hello. A radio message and its reply would take 541 years round-trip.

Standing on it

A year here. A full year lasts just 18.4 Earth days.

By the numbers

Size. About 2.2× the width of Earth.
Volume. About 11.4 Earths could fit inside it.
Mass. About 5.7× the mass of Earth.
Your weight. You'd weigh about 1.1× your Earth weight standing here.
Temperature. A surprisingly temperate 41°C average.

How we found it

Discovery. Found by K2 using the transit method.

Properties

density gcc: 2.74
discovery facility: K2
discovery method: Transit
dist ly: 270.5891
eq temp k: 314
habitable zone: yes
insolation: 1.36
mass earth: 5.69
name: K2-9 b
orbital period days: 18.4498
radius earth: 2.25
sys num planets: 1

About K2-9 b

K2-9 b is a rare exoplanet. It lies about 270.6 light-years from Earth, has an equilibrium temperature near 314 K, spans roughly 2.25 Earth radii and weighs about 5.69 Earth masses.

Sits where it's neither too hot nor too cold — liquid water could exist.

How to see it

Like any astronomical target, K2-9 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 K2-9 b is a rare exoplanet

K2-9 b scores 40 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 6 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 3 science badges — Confirmed exoplanet, In the habitable zone and Sub-Neptune — 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.