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Rare exoplanet 39 EP

Qatar-4 b

RA 4.8593° · Dec 44.0276° · exoplanet

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges
39 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Lava world +14
  • Tidally locked +10
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • Confirmed exoplanet +5
  • Gas giant +4
Total score 39

11 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Confirmed exoplanet · +5
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • Gas giant · +4
  • Lava world · +14
  • Tidally locked · +10

Trivia

What makes it special

  • Lava world. Its surface is almost certainly an ocean of molten rock, kept liquid by the star it hugs.

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. Its density says rock, though lighter than Earth's mix: probably less iron, or a thick shell of water and ice over the top.

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 13.6 it is far too faint for the eye: this one belongs to cameras and long exposures.
  • Northern sky. It rides the northern half of the sky — an easier target the further north 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. Impossible with our current technology — and the next millennium of it.

Properties

density gcc
5.1
diameter km
162287.119
discovery facility
Qatar
discovery method
Transit
discovery year
2017
dist ly
1073.1707
eccentricity
0
eq temp k
1385
host star teff
5215
inclination
87.5
insolation
614
mag
13.574
mass earth
1938.763
name
Qatar-4 b
orbital period days
1.8054
radius earth
12.7222
semi major au
0.028
spect
K1 V
sys num planets
1
sys num stars
1
tidally locked
yes
tidally locked inferred
yes

About Qatar-4 b

Qatar-4 b is a rare exoplanet. It lies about 1,073.2 light-years from Earth, shines at apparent magnitude 13.57, has spectral type K1 V and has an equilibrium temperature near 1,385 K.

Its surface is almost certainly an ocean of molten rock, kept liquid by the star it hugs.

How to see it

At apparent magnitude 13.57, it takes a larger telescope or a long-exposure image to capture.

Like any astronomical target, Qatar-4 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 Qatar-4 b is a rare exoplanet

Qatar-4 b scores 39 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 11 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Confirmed exoplanet, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Gas giant, Lava world and Tidally locked — 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.