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Rare exoplanet 43 EP

K2-253 b

RA 186.0853° · Dec -6.3790° · exoplanet

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Score breakdown

· 6 badges
43 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Hot Jupiter +10
  • Tidally locked +10
  • Orbits a Sun-like star +8
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • Confirmed exoplanet +5
  • Gas giant +4
Total score 43

7 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Confirmed exoplanet · +5
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • Gas giant · +4
  • Hot Jupiter · +10
  • Tidally locked · +10
  • Orbits a Sun-like star · +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.

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 15 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. Impossible with our current technology — and the next millennium of it.

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 50.2 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
  • Fastest probe ever. ≈ 4.5 million years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.

Properties

diameter km
161621.054
discovery facility
K2
discovery method
Transit
discovery year
2018
dist ly
2858.9693
eq temp k
1238
host star teff
6027
insolation
365.8185
mag
15.002
name
K2-253 b
orbital period days
4.0017
radius earth
12.67
semi major au
0.0506
sys num planets
1
sys num stars
1
tidally locked
yes
tidally locked inferred
yes

About K2-253 b

K2-253 b is a rare exoplanet. It lies about 2,859 light-years from Earth, shines at apparent magnitude 15, has an equilibrium temperature near 1,238 K and spans roughly 12.67 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 15, it takes a larger telescope or a long-exposure image to capture.

Like any astronomical target, K2-253 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 K2-253 b is a rare exoplanet

K2-253 b scores 43 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 7 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 6 science badges — Confirmed exoplanet, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Gas giant, Hot Jupiter, Tidally locked and Orbits a Sun-like star — 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.