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Uncommon exoplanet 26 EP

HD 81040 b

RA 140.9455° · Dec 20.3646° · exoplanet

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges
26 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Eccentric orbit +9
  • Orbits a Sun-like star +8
  • Confirmed exoplanet +5
  • Gas giant +4
Total score 26

8 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

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

Trivia

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.

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 7.7 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in.
  • 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 February — 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. ≈ 2 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
  • Fastest probe ever. ≈ 175.4 thousand years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.

Properties

density gcc
6.32
diameter km
160728.12
discovery facility
Multiple Observatories
discovery method
Radial Velocity
discovery year
2005
dist ly
112.3089
eccentricity
0.525
eq temp k
189.77
host star teff
5755
inclination
73
insolation
0.2213
mag
7.72
mass earth
2301.0777
name
HD 81040 b
orbital period days
1002.7
radius earth
12.6
semi major au
1.946
spect
G2/G3
sys num planets
1
sys num stars
1

About HD 81040 b

HD 81040 b is an uncommon exoplanet. It lies about 112.3 light-years from Earth, shines at apparent magnitude 7.72, has spectral type G2/G3 and has an equilibrium temperature near 190 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 7.72, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 81040 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 81040 b is an uncommon exoplanet

HD 81040 b scores 26 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 8 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Confirmed exoplanet, Gas giant, Eccentric orbit 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.