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Uncommon exoplanet 24 EP

KIC 8540376 b

RA 282.3775° · Dec 44.6946° · exoplanet

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges
24 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • Multi-planet system +6
  • Confirmed exoplanet +5
  • Neptune-like +4
  • Found by Kepler +3
Total score 24

10 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Confirmed exoplanet · +5
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • Neptune-like · +4
  • Multi-planet system · +6
  • Found by Kepler · +3

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. Lighter than Neptune — a puffed-up ball of hydrogen and helium with no surface anywhere on it to stand on.
  • Crowded system. One of at least 3 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 14.4 it is far too faint for the eye: this one belongs to cameras and long exposures.
  • Northern sky. It rides the northern half of the sky — an easier target the further north you are.
  • Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around July — 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
1.26
diameter km
52300.42
discovery facility
Kepler
discovery method
Transit
discovery year
2015
dist ly
3497.3708
host star teff
6474
inclination
89.3
mag
14.411
mass earth
15.8
name
KIC 8540376 b
orbital period days
31.8099
radius earth
4.1
sys num planets
3
sys num stars
1

About KIC 8540376 b

KIC 8540376 b is an uncommon exoplanet. It lies about 3,497.4 light-years from Earth, shines at apparent magnitude 14.41, spans roughly 4.1 Earth radii and weighs about 15.8 Earth masses.

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 14.41, it takes a larger telescope or a long-exposure image to capture.

Like any astronomical target, KIC 8540376 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 KIC 8540376 b is an uncommon exoplanet

KIC 8540376 b scores 24 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 10 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Confirmed exoplanet, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Neptune-like, Multi-planet system and Found by Kepler — 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.