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Rare exoplanet 35 EP

WASP-53 b

RA 31.9092° · Dec -20.6618° · exoplanet

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges
35 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Hot Jupiter +10
  • Tidally locked +10
  • Multi-planet system +6
  • Confirmed exoplanet +5
  • Gas giant +4
Total score 35

15 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Confirmed exoplanet · +5
  • Gas giant · +4
  • Hot Jupiter · +10
  • Tidally locked · +10
  • Multi-planet system · +6

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.
  • 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.
  • 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 12.6 it is far too faint for the eye: this one belongs to cameras and long exposures.
  • Southern sky. It rides the southern half of the sky — an easier target the further south you are.
  • Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around October — that's when to go looking.

Could we get there?

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

Properties

density gcc
2.28
diameter km
153565.08
discovery facility
Multiple Facilities
discovery method
Transit
discovery year
2017
dist ly
656.676
eccentricity
0.03
eq temp k
1053
host star teff
4953
inclination
87.08
insolation
241.6656
mag
12.591
mass earth
677.6136
name
WASP-53 b
orbital period days
3.3098
radius earth
12.0385
semi major au
0.041
sys num planets
2
sys num stars
1
tidally locked
yes
tidally locked inferred
yes

About WASP-53 b

WASP-53 b is a rare exoplanet. It lies about 656.7 light-years from Earth, shines at apparent magnitude 12.59, has an equilibrium temperature near 1,053 K and spans roughly 12.04 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 12.59, it takes a larger telescope or a long-exposure image to capture.

Like any astronomical target, WASP-53 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 WASP-53 b is a rare exoplanet

WASP-53 b scores 35 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 15 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Confirmed exoplanet, Gas giant, Hot Jupiter, Tidally locked 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.