About TOI-1278 b
TOI-1278 b is an uncommon exoplanet. It lies about 246.5 light-years from Earth, has an equilibrium temperature near 408 K, spans roughly 12.22 Earth radii and weighs about 5,879.83 Earth masses.
Packed denser than solid iron.
Uncommon exoplanet 31 EP
TOI-1278 b
RA 320.4784° · Dec 35.6486° · exoplanet
Score breakdown
· 4 badgesUncommon 33 pts → Rare
- Denser than iron +18
- Confirmed exoplanet +5
- Gas giant +4
- Found by TESS +4
Total score 31
2 more points to reach Rare.
Badges
- Confirmed exoplanet · +5
- Gas giant · +4
- Denser than iron · +18
- Found by TESS · +4
Trivia
What makes it special
- Heavyweight. Packed denser than solid iron.
Could we get there?
- Verdict. Hopelessly far for any craft humanity can build today.
Getting there
- Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 4.3 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
- Fastest probe ever. ≈ 384.9 thousand years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.
- At 10% light speed. ≈ 2465 years in a starship at a tenth of light speed.
- Distance. 246 light-years from Earth.
Look-back time
- Look-back time. The light you'd see left around the year 1780.
Saying hello
- Say hello. A radio message and its reply would take 493 years round-trip.
Standing on it
- A year here. A full year lasts just 14.5 Earth days.
By the numbers
- Size. About 12.2× the width of Earth.
- Volume. About 1824 Earths could fit inside it.
- Mass. Roughly 5880× Earth's mass — about 18.5 Jupiters.
- Your weight. You'd weigh about 39.4× your Earth weight standing here.
- Density. Denser than solid iron.
- Temperature. A scorching 135°C on average.
How we found it
- Discovery. Found by Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) using the transit method.
Properties
- density gcc
- 18
- discovery facility
- Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS)
- discovery method
- Transit
- dist ly
- 246.4953
- eccentricity
- 0.013
- eq temp k
- 407.87
- insolation
- 6.5402
- mass earth
- 5879.8255
- name
- TOI-1278 b
- orbital period days
- 14.4757
- radius earth
- 12.2178
- sys num planets
- 1
How to see it
Like any astronomical target, TOI-1278 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 TOI-1278 b is an uncommon exoplanet
TOI-1278 b scores 31 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 2 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 4 science badges — Confirmed exoplanet, Gas giant, Denser than iron and Found by TESS — 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.