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Epic exoplanet 50 EP

HD 126614 b

RA 216.7005° · Dec -5.1784° · exoplanet

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Score breakdown

· 6 badges
50 pts · Epic
Epic 78 pts → Anomaly
  • Puffy low-density world +12
  • Two suns in its sky +12
  • Eccentric orbit +9
  • Orbits a Sun-like star +8
  • Confirmed exoplanet +5
  • Gas giant +4
Total score 50

28 more points to reach Anomaly.

Badges

  • Confirmed exoplanet · +5
  • Gas giant · +4
  • Eccentric orbit · +9
  • Puffy low-density world · +12
  • Orbits a Sun-like star · +8
  • Two suns in its sky · +12

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

  • 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.

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 8.8 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in.
  • Seen from everywhere. It sits almost on the celestial equator, so it can be seen from essentially anywhere on Earth.
  • Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around April — 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. ≈ 4.2 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

density gcc
0.289
diameter km
162003.74
discovery facility
W. M. Keck Observatory
discovery method
Radial Velocity
discovery year
2009
dist ly
238.4073
eccentricity
0.548
eq temp k
209.54
host star teff
5568
inclination
97.477
insolation
0.2392
mag
8.81
mass earth
107.7438
multi star system
yes
name
HD 126614 b
orbital period days
1257.253
radius earth
12.7
semi major au
2.249
spect
G8 IV
sys num planets
1
sys num stars
3

Nearby objects

About HD 126614 b

HD 126614 b is an epic exoplanet. It lies about 238.4 light-years from Earth, shines at apparent magnitude 8.81, has spectral type G8 IV and has an equilibrium temperature near 210 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 8.81, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 126614 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 126614 b is an epic exoplanet

HD 126614 b scores 50 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the epic tier. Another 28 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 6 science badges — Confirmed exoplanet, Gas giant, Eccentric orbit, Puffy low-density world, Orbits a Sun-like star 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.