About HD 168443 c
HD 168443 c is a rare exoplanet. It lies about 129.2 light-years from Earth, has an equilibrium temperature near 205 K, spans roughly 12.2 Earth radii and weighs about 5,500.34 Earth masses.
Packed denser than solid iron.
Rare exoplanet 33 EP
HD 168443 c
RA 275.0160° · Dec -9.5967° · exoplanet
Score breakdown
· 4 badgesRare 46 pts → Epic
- Denser than iron +18
- Multi-planet system +6
- Confirmed exoplanet +5
- Gas giant +4
Total score 33
13 more points to reach Epic.
Badges
- Confirmed exoplanet · +5
- Gas giant · +4
- Denser than iron · +18
- Multi-planet system · +6
Trivia
What makes it special
- Heavyweight. Packed denser than solid iron.
Could we get there?
- Verdict. Hopelessly far for any craft humanity can build today.
Getting there
- Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 2.3 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
- Fastest probe ever. ≈ 201.8 thousand years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.
- At 10% light speed. ≈ 1292 years in a starship at a tenth of light speed.
- Distance. 129 light-years from Earth.
Look-back time
- Look-back time. The light you'd see left around the year 1897.
Saying hello
- Say hello. A radio message and its reply would take 258 years round-trip.
Standing on it
- A year here. A full year lasts about 4.8 Earth years.
By the numbers
- Size. About 12.2× the width of Earth.
- Volume. About 1816 Earths could fit inside it.
- Mass. Roughly 5500× Earth's mass — about 17.3 Jupiters.
- Your weight. You'd weigh about 37.0× your Earth weight standing here.
- Density. Denser than solid iron.
- Temperature. A frigid -68°C — colder than dry ice.
How we found it
- Discovery. Found by W. M. Keck Observatory using the radial velocity method.
Cosmic context
- Crowded system. One of at least 2 planets orbiting its star.
Properties
- density gcc
- 16.6
- discovery facility
- W. M. Keck Observatory
- discovery method
- Radial Velocity
- dist ly
- 129.2377
- eccentricity
- 0.21
- eq temp k
- 205.47
- insolation
- 0.2987
- mass earth
- 5500.3384
- name
- HD 168443 c
- orbital period days
- 1753.1096
- radius earth
- 12.2
- sys num planets
- 2
How to see it
Like any astronomical target, HD 168443 c 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 168443 c is a rare exoplanet
HD 168443 c scores 33 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 13 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 4 science badges — Confirmed exoplanet, Gas giant, Denser than iron and Multi-planet system — 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.