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Rare exoplanet 43 EP

WASP-120 b

RA 62.6161° · Dec -45.8982° · exoplanet

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Score breakdown

· 6 badges
43 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
  • Blasted by starlight +4
Total score 43

7 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
  • Blasted by starlight · +4

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. 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. 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 11 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 November — 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
2.3341
diameter km
198747.7594
discovery facility
SuperWASP
discovery method
Transit
discovery year
2016
dist ly
1243.2219
eccentricity
0.057
eq temp k
1749
host star teff
6450
inclination
84.54
insolation
1818.5489
mag
10.96
mass earth
1541.4755
name
WASP-120 b
orbital period days
3.6113
radius earth
15.5805
semi major au
0.0514
spect
F5
sys num planets
1
sys num stars
1
tidally locked
yes
tidally locked inferred
yes

About WASP-120 b

WASP-120 b is a rare exoplanet. It lies about 1,243.2 light-years from Earth, shines at apparent magnitude 10.96, has spectral type F5 and has an equilibrium temperature near 1,749 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 10.96, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, WASP-120 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 WASP-120 b is a rare exoplanet

WASP-120 b scores 43 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 7 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 6 science badges — Confirmed exoplanet, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Gas giant, Lava world, Tidally locked and Blasted by starlight — 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.