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Rare exoplanet 39 EP

HIP 34222 b

RA 106.4258° · Dec 27.4704° · exoplanet

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Score breakdown

· 3 badges
39 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • In the habitable zone +30
  • Confirmed exoplanet +5
  • Gas giant +4
Total score 39

11 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Confirmed exoplanet · +5
  • In the habitable zone · +30
  • Gas giant · +4

Trivia

What makes it special

  • Goldilocks zone. Sits where it's neither too hot nor too cold — liquid water could exist on a surface here.

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.
  • What the zone means. The habitable zone is only about temperature: it is the band where liquid water could survive on a surface. It is a promising address, not evidence of anything living.

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 10.1 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 January — that's when to go looking.

Properties

density gcc
0.54
diameter km
177311.18
discovery facility
Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory
discovery method
Radial Velocity
discovery year
2021
dist ly
74.4895
eccentricity
0.305
eq temp k
218.98
habitable zone
yes
host star teff
4050
insolation
0.3832
mag
10.14
mass earth
263.7976
name
HIP 34222 b
orbital period days
159.986
radius earth
13.9
semi major au
0.492
spect
K7 V
sys num planets
1
sys num stars
1

Nearby objects

About HIP 34222 b

HIP 34222 b is a rare exoplanet. It lies about 74.5 light-years from Earth, shines at apparent magnitude 10.14, has spectral type K7 V and has an equilibrium temperature near 219 K.

Sits where it's neither too hot nor too cold — liquid water could exist on a surface here.

How to see it

At apparent magnitude 10.14, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, HIP 34222 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 HIP 34222 b is a rare exoplanet

HIP 34222 b scores 39 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 11 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 3 science badges — Confirmed exoplanet, In the habitable zone and Gas giant — 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.