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Epic exoplanet 51 EP

Kepler-122 b

RA 291.1119° · Dec 39.9490° · exoplanet

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Score breakdown

· 7 badges
51 pts · Epic
Epic 78 pts → Anomaly
  • Richly packed system +14
  • Tidally locked +10
  • Orbits a Sun-like star +8
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • Confirmed exoplanet +5
  • Sub-Neptune +5
  • Found by Kepler +3
Total score 51

27 more points to reach Anomaly.

Badges

  • Confirmed exoplanet · +5
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • Sub-Neptune · +5
  • Tidally locked · +10
  • Richly packed system · +14
  • Found by Kepler · +3
  • Orbits a Sun-like star · +8

Trivia

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. Too light to be solid rock and too heavy to be all gas: most likely a deep global ocean or a thick steamy envelope over a rocky core.
  • Crowded system. One of at least 5 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 14.4 it is far too faint for the eye: this one belongs to cameras and long exposures.
  • 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 July — that's when to go looking.

Could we get there?

  • Verdict. Impossible with our current technology — and the next millennium of it.

Properties

density gcc
2.61
diameter km
29849.508
discovery facility
Kepler
discovery method
Transit
discovery year
2014
dist ly
3351.0898
eccentricity
0
eq temp k
1159
host star teff
6050
inclination
89.92
insolation
448.102
mag
14.403
mass earth
6.08
name
Kepler-122 b
orbital period days
5.7662
radius earth
2.34
semi major au
0.064
sys num planets
5
sys num stars
1
tidally locked
yes
tidally locked inferred
yes

About Kepler-122 b

Kepler-122 b is an epic exoplanet. It lies about 3,351.1 light-years from Earth, shines at apparent magnitude 14.4, has an equilibrium temperature near 1,159 K and spans roughly 2.34 Earth radii.

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 14.4, it takes a larger telescope or a long-exposure image to capture.

Like any astronomical target, Kepler-122 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 Kepler-122 b is an epic exoplanet

Kepler-122 b scores 51 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the epic tier. Another 27 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 7 science badges — Confirmed exoplanet, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Sub-Neptune, Tidally locked, Richly packed system, Found by Kepler 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.