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Rare exoplanet 36 EP

GJ 876 e

RA 343.3240° · Dec -14.2666° · exoplanet

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges
36 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Nearby (<25 ly) +12
  • Orbits a red dwarf +8
  • Multi-planet system +6
  • Confirmed exoplanet +5
  • Sub-Neptune +5
Total score 36

14 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Confirmed exoplanet · +5
  • Nearby (<25 ly) · +12
  • Sub-Neptune · +5
  • Multi-planet system · +6
  • Orbits a red dwarf · +8

Trivia

What it actually is

  • 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 4 planets orbiting its star.

Sense of scale

  • In perspective. Inside our stellar backyard: every radio broadcast humanity has ever made has already swept past it.

Find it in the sky

  • How to spot it. At magnitude 10.2 you'll want a small backyard telescope.
  • 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 September — that's when to go looking.

Could we get there?

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

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 268 thousand years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

density gcc
1.33
diameter km
50004.304
discovery facility
W. M. Keck Observatory
discovery method
Radial Velocity
discovery year
2010
dist ly
15.2483
eccentricity
0.055
eq temp k
150.46
host star teff
3293.74
inclination
59
insolation
0.111
mag
10.16
mass earth
14.6
name
GJ 876 e
orbital period days
124.26
radius earth
3.92
semi major au
0.3343
spect
M2.5V
sys num planets
4
sys num stars
1

About GJ 876 e

GJ 876 e is a rare exoplanet. It lies about 15.2 light-years from Earth, shines at apparent magnitude 10.16, has spectral type M2.5V and has an equilibrium temperature near 150 K.

Lighter than Neptune — a puffed-up ball of hydrogen and helium with no surface anywhere on it to stand on.

How to see it

At apparent magnitude 10.16, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, GJ 876 e 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 GJ 876 e is a rare exoplanet

GJ 876 e scores 36 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 14 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Confirmed exoplanet, Nearby (<25 ly), Sub-Neptune, Multi-planet system and Orbits a red dwarf — 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.