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Common exoplanet 20 EP

HD 5278 b

RA 12.5468° · Dec -83.7438° · exoplanet

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges
20 pts · Common
Common 22 pts → Uncommon
  • Multi-planet system +6
  • Confirmed exoplanet +5
  • Sub-Neptune +5
  • Found by TESS +4
Total score 20

2 more points to reach Uncommon.

Badges

  • Confirmed exoplanet · +5
  • Sub-Neptune · +5
  • Multi-planet system · +6
  • Found by TESS · +4

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.
  • Crowded system. One of at least 2 planets orbiting its star.

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 7.9 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in.
  • Southern sky only. So far south it never rises for most of the northern hemisphere. To see it you'd have to travel to Chile, South Africa or Australia.
  • Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around October — that's when to go looking.

Could we get there?

  • Verdict. Hopelessly far for any craft humanity can build today.

Properties

density gcc
2.9
diameter km
31252.69
discovery facility
Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS)
discovery method
Transit
discovery year
2021
dist ly
187.8156
eccentricity
0.08
eq temp k
943
host star teff
6203
inclination
89.27
insolation
132
mag
7.94
mass earth
7.8
name
HD 5278 b
orbital period days
14.3392
radius earth
2.45
semi major au
0.1202
spect
F V
sys num planets
2
sys num stars
1

About HD 5278 b

HD 5278 b is a common exoplanet. It lies about 187.8 light-years from Earth, shines at apparent magnitude 7.94, has spectral type F V and has an equilibrium temperature near 943 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 7.94, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 5278 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 5278 b is a common exoplanet

HD 5278 b scores 20 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 2 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Confirmed exoplanet, Sub-Neptune, Multi-planet system 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.