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Uncommon exoplanet 31 EP

WASP-11 b

RA 47.3689° · Dec 30.6734° · exoplanet

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges
31 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Two suns in its sky +12
  • Tidally locked +10
  • Confirmed exoplanet +5
  • Gas giant +4
Total score 31

3 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

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

  • 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.
  • 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 November — that's when to go looking.

Could we get there?

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

Properties

density gcc
0.632
diameter km
158712.5128
discovery facility
SuperWASP
discovery method
Transit
discovery year
2008
dist ly
406.8144
eccentricity
0
eq temp k
992
host star teff
4800
inclination
89.8
insolation
184.988
mag
11.567
mass earth
251.0857
multi star system
yes
name
WASP-11 b
orbital period days
3.7225
radius earth
12.442
semi major au
0.0435
spect
K3 V
sys num planets
1
sys num stars
3
tidally locked
yes
tidally locked inferred
yes

About WASP-11 b

WASP-11 b is an uncommon exoplanet. It lies about 406.8 light-years from Earth, shines at apparent magnitude 11.57, has spectral type K3 V and has an equilibrium temperature near 992 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 11.57, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, WASP-11 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-11 b is an uncommon exoplanet

WASP-11 b scores 31 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 3 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Confirmed exoplanet, Gas giant, Tidally locked 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.