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Epic exoplanet 51 EP

HD 196885 A b

RA 309.9665° · Dec 11.2500° · exoplanet

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges
51 pts · Epic
Epic 78 pts → Anomaly
  • In the habitable zone +30
  • Two suns in its sky +12
  • Confirmed exoplanet +5
  • Gas giant +4
Total score 51

27 more points to reach Anomaly.

Badges

  • Confirmed exoplanet · +5
  • In the habitable zone · +30
  • Gas giant · +4
  • Two suns in its sky · +12

Trivia

What makes it special

  • Goldilocks zone. Sits where it's neither too hot nor too cold — liquid water could exist on a surface here.

What it actually is

  • 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.
  • What the zone means. The habitable zone is only about temperature: it is the band where liquid water could survive on a surface. It is a promising address, not evidence of anything living.

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 6.4 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in.
  • 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.

Properties

density gcc
1.96
diameter km
168381.84
discovery facility
Haute-Provence Observatory
discovery method
Radial Velocity
discovery year
2007
dist ly
111.4449
eccentricity
0.48
eq temp k
224.21
habitable zone
yes
host star teff
6254
insolation
0.4271
mag
6.3968
mass earth
819.97
multi star system
yes
name
HD 196885 A b
orbital period days
1333
radius earth
13.2
semi major au
2.37
spect
F8 V
sys num planets
1
sys num stars
2

Nearby objects

About HD 196885 A b

HD 196885 A b is an epic exoplanet. It lies about 111.4 light-years from Earth, shines at apparent magnitude 6.4, has spectral type F8 V and has an equilibrium temperature near 224 K.

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

How to see it

At apparent magnitude 6.4, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 196885 A 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 HD 196885 A b is an epic exoplanet

HD 196885 A b scores 51 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the epic tier. Another 27 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Confirmed exoplanet, In the habitable zone, Gas giant 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.