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Rare exoplanet 35 EP

HD 11964 b

RA 29.2884° · Dec -10.2435° · exoplanet

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges
35 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Two suns in its sky +12
  • Orbits a Sun-like star +8
  • Multi-planet system +6
  • Confirmed exoplanet +5
  • Gas giant +4
Total score 35

15 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Confirmed exoplanet · +5
  • Gas giant · +4
  • Multi-planet system · +6
  • Orbits a Sun-like star · +8
  • Two suns in its sky · +12

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

  • 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 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 6.4 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in.
  • 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 October — that's when to go looking.

Could we get there?

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

Properties

density gcc
0.388
diameter km
179862.42
discovery facility
W. M. Keck Observatory
discovery method
Radial Velocity
discovery year
2005
dist ly
109.3826
eccentricity
0.041
eq temp k
203.93
host star teff
5303
insolation
0.2882
mag
6.4153
mass earth
198
multi star system
yes
name
HD 11964 b
orbital period days
1945
radius earth
14.1
semi major au
3.16
spect
G9 V CN+1
sys num planets
2
sys num stars
2

About HD 11964 b

HD 11964 b is a rare exoplanet. It lies about 109.4 light-years from Earth, shines at apparent magnitude 6.42, has spectral type G9 V CN+1 and has an equilibrium temperature near 204 K.

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

How to see it

At apparent magnitude 6.42, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 11964 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 11964 b is a rare exoplanet

HD 11964 b scores 35 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 15 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Confirmed exoplanet, Gas giant, Multi-planet system, Orbits a Sun-like star and Two suns in its sky — 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.