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Common exoplanet 17 EP

HD 90156 b

RA 155.9801° · Dec -29.6451° · exoplanet

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Score breakdown

· 3 badges
17 pts · Common
Common 22 pts → Uncommon
  • Orbits a Sun-like star +8
  • Confirmed exoplanet +5
  • Neptune-like +4
Total score 17

5 more points to reach Uncommon.

Badges

  • Confirmed exoplanet · +5
  • Neptune-like · +4
  • Orbits a Sun-like star · +8

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. 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. 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 6.9 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in.
  • 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 February — 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. ≈ 1.3 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

density gcc
1.14
diameter km
56509.966
discovery facility
La Silla Observatory
discovery method
Radial Velocity
discovery year
2011
dist ly
71.5899
eccentricity
0.31
eq temp k
518.01
host star teff
5599
insolation
11.52
mag
6.92
mass earth
17.98
name
HD 90156 b
orbital period days
49.77
radius earth
4.43
semi major au
0.25
spect
G5V
sys num planets
1
sys num stars
1

About HD 90156 b

HD 90156 b is a common exoplanet. It lies about 71.6 light-years from Earth, shines at apparent magnitude 6.92, has spectral type G5V and has an equilibrium temperature near 518 K.

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 6.92, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 90156 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 90156 b is a common exoplanet

HD 90156 b scores 17 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 5 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 3 science badges — Confirmed exoplanet, Neptune-like and Orbits a Sun-like star — 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.