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Uncommon exoplanet 24 EP

KOI-12 b

RA 297.4537° · Dec 41.0110° · exoplanet

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges
24 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • Multi-planet system +6
  • Confirmed exoplanet +5
  • Gas giant +4
  • Found by Kepler +3
Total score 24

10 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Confirmed exoplanet · +5
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • Gas giant · +4
  • Multi-planet system · +6
  • Found by Kepler · +3

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.
  • Crowded system. One of at least 2 planets orbiting its star.

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 11.5 you'll want a small backyard telescope.
  • 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.

Properties

density gcc
0.733
diameter km
175870.6223
discovery facility
Kepler
discovery method
Transit
discovery year
2015
dist ly
1302.6605
eccentricity
0.34
eq temp k
911
host star teff
6635
inclination
88.95
insolation
196.507
mag
11.51
mass earth
349.613
name
KOI-12 b
orbital period days
17.8552
radius earth
13.7871
semi major au
0.154
sys num planets
2
sys num stars
1

About KOI-12 b

KOI-12 b is an uncommon exoplanet. It lies about 1,302.7 light-years from Earth, shines at apparent magnitude 11.51, has an equilibrium temperature near 911 K and spans roughly 13.79 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 11.51, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, KOI-12 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 KOI-12 b is an uncommon exoplanet

KOI-12 b scores 24 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 10 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Confirmed exoplanet, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Gas giant, Multi-planet system and Found by Kepler — 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.