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Common exoplanet 18 EP

HD 42618 b

RA 93.0032° · Dec 6.7820° · exoplanet

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Score breakdown

· 3 badges
18 pts · Common
Common 22 pts → Uncommon
  • Orbits a Sun-like star +8
  • Confirmed exoplanet +5
  • Sub-Neptune +5
Total score 18

4 more points to reach Uncommon.

Badges

  • Confirmed exoplanet · +5
  • Sub-Neptune · +5
  • Orbits a Sun-like star · +8

Trivia

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.

Sense of scale

  • In perspective. Inside our stellar backyard: every radio broadcast humanity has ever made has already swept past it.

Find it in the sky

  • How to spot it. At magnitude 6.9 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in.
  • 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 December — that's when to go looking.

Could we get there?

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

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 1.4 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
  • Fastest probe ever. ≈ 123.9 thousand years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.

Properties

density gcc
1.34
diameter km
49621.618
discovery facility
Multiple Observatories
discovery method
Radial Velocity
discovery year
2016
dist ly
79.3727
eccentricity
0.19
eq temp k
337
host star teff
5727
insolation
3.16
mag
6.87
mass earth
14.4
name
HD 42618 b
orbital period days
149.61
radius earth
3.89
semi major au
0.554
spect
G4 V
sys num planets
1
sys num stars
1

Nearby objects

About HD 42618 b

HD 42618 b is a common exoplanet. It lies about 79.4 light-years from Earth, shines at apparent magnitude 6.87, has spectral type G4 V and has an equilibrium temperature near 337 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 6.87, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 42618 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 42618 b is a common exoplanet

HD 42618 b scores 18 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 4 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 3 science badges — Confirmed exoplanet, Sub-Neptune and Orbits a Sun-like star — 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.