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Uncommon exoplanet 32 EP

HD 156279 b

RA 258.0967° · Dec 63.3528° · exoplanet

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges
32 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Eccentric orbit +9
  • Orbits a Sun-like star +8
  • Multi-planet system +6
  • Confirmed exoplanet +5
  • Gas giant +4
Total score 32

2 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Confirmed exoplanet · +5
  • Gas giant · +4
  • Eccentric orbit · +9
  • Multi-planet system · +6
  • Orbits a Sun-like star · +8

Trivia

Hard to believe

  • Denser than iron. It is packed tighter than solid iron — whatever it is made of, it is not ordinary rock.

What it actually is

  • What it is made of. Denser than Earth — a solid world of rock and iron, with no meaningful atmosphere to speak of by mass.
  • 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 8.1 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in.
  • Never sets. So far north that from Britain, Canada or northern Europe it never dips below the horizon — it is up every clear night of the year.
  • Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around June — that's when to go looking.

Could we get there?

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

Properties

density gcc
8.43
diameter km
159452.5
discovery facility
Haute-Provence Observatory
discovery method
Radial Velocity
discovery year
2011
dist ly
118.0505
eccentricity
0.647
eq temp k
361.73
host star teff
5453
inclination
87
insolation
2.8355
mag
8.07
mass earth
2997.7575
name
HD 156279 b
orbital period days
133.4035
radius earth
12.5
semi major au
0.502
spect
G6
sys num planets
2
sys num stars
1

About HD 156279 b

HD 156279 b is an uncommon exoplanet. It lies about 118.1 light-years from Earth, shines at apparent magnitude 8.07, has spectral type G6 and has an equilibrium temperature near 362 K.

Denser than Earth — a solid world of rock and iron, with no meaningful atmosphere to speak of by mass.

How to see it

At apparent magnitude 8.07, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 156279 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 156279 b is an uncommon exoplanet

HD 156279 b scores 32 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 2 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Confirmed exoplanet, Gas giant, Eccentric orbit, Multi-planet system 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.