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Common exoplanet 19 EP

WASP-156 b

RA 32.7821° · Dec 2.4182° · exoplanet

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Score breakdown

· 3 badges
19 pts · Common
Common 22 pts → Uncommon
  • Tidally locked +10
  • Confirmed exoplanet +5
  • Gas giant +4
Total score 19

3 more points to reach Uncommon.

Badges

  • Confirmed exoplanet · +5
  • Gas giant · +4
  • Tidally locked · +10

Trivia

Hard to believe

  • It would float. It is less dense than water. Drop it in a big enough ocean and the whole world would bob on the surface.

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. Lighter than Neptune — a puffed-up ball of hydrogen and helium with no surface anywhere on it to stand on.

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 11.6 you'll want a small backyard telescope.
  • 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 October — that's when to go looking.

Could we get there?

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

Properties

density gcc
0.99
diameter km
78450.63
discovery facility
SuperWASP
discovery method
Transit
discovery year
2017
dist ly
398.1256
eccentricity
0.16
eq temp k
934.5
host star teff
5036
inclination
88.1
insolation
150
mag
11.559
mass earth
42
name
WASP-156 b
orbital period days
3.8362
radius earth
6.15
semi major au
0.046
spect
K3 V
sys num planets
1
sys num stars
1
tidally locked
yes
tidally locked inferred
yes

About WASP-156 b

WASP-156 b is a common exoplanet. It lies about 398.1 light-years from Earth, shines at apparent magnitude 11.56, has spectral type K3 V and has an equilibrium temperature near 935 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 11.56, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, WASP-156 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-156 b is a common exoplanet

WASP-156 b scores 19 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 3 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 3 science badges — Confirmed exoplanet, Gas giant 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.