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Uncommon exoplanet 28 EP

GJ 1214 b

RA 258.8314° · Dec 4.9607° · exoplanet

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges
28 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Tidally locked +10
  • Orbits a red dwarf +8
  • Confirmed exoplanet +5
  • Sub-Neptune +5
Total score 28

6 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Confirmed exoplanet · +5
  • Sub-Neptune · +5
  • Tidally locked · +10
  • Orbits a red dwarf · +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. 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.

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 15.1 it is far too faint for the eye: this one belongs to cameras and long exposures.
  • 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 June — 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. ≈ 839.2 thousand years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

density gcc
2.26
diameter km
34862.6946
discovery facility
MEarth Project
discovery method
Transit
discovery year
2009
dist ly
47.758
eccentricity
0.0062
eq temp k
567
host star teff
3101
inclination
88.98
insolation
17.2
mag
15.1
mass earth
8.41
name
GJ 1214 b
orbital period days
1.5804
radius earth
2.733
semi major au
0.015
spect
M4 V
sys num planets
1
sys num stars
1
tidally locked
yes
tidally locked inferred
yes

About GJ 1214 b

GJ 1214 b is an uncommon exoplanet. It lies about 47.8 light-years from Earth, shines at apparent magnitude 15.1, has spectral type M4 V and has an equilibrium temperature near 567 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 15.1, it takes a larger telescope or a long-exposure image to capture.

Like any astronomical target, GJ 1214 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 GJ 1214 b is an uncommon exoplanet

GJ 1214 b scores 28 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 6 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Confirmed exoplanet, Sub-Neptune, Tidally locked 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.