Epic exoplanet 54 EP

Kepler-256 b

RA 292.5804° · Dec 46.0974° · exoplanet

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Score breakdown

· 7 badges

54 pts · Epic

Epic 68 pts → Anomaly

Lava world +14
Distant (>1000 ly) +10
Super-Earth +8
Blasted by starlight +8
Multi-planet system +6
Confirmed exoplanet +5
Found by Kepler +3

Total score 54

14 more points to reach Anomaly.

Badges

Confirmed exoplanet · +5
Super-Earth · +8
Lava world · +14
Multi-planet system · +6
Blasted by starlight · +8
Found by Kepler · +3
Distant (>1000 ly) · +10

Trivia

What makes it special

Lava world. Its surface is likely an ocean of molten rock.

Could we get there?

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

Getting there

Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 58.8 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
Fastest probe ever. ≈ 5.2 million years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.
At 10% light speed. ≈ 33.5 thousand years in a starship at a tenth of light speed.
Distance. 3348 light-years from Earth.

Look-back time

Look-back time. Its light left before the last ice age ended.

Saying hello

Say hello. A radio message and its reply would take 6696 years round-trip.

Standing on it

A year here. A full year lasts just 1.6 Earth days.

By the numbers

Size. About 1.6× the width of Earth.
Mass. About 3.1× the mass of Earth.
Your weight. You'd weigh about 1.2× your Earth weight standing here.
Temperature. Around 1408°C — hotter than a self-cleaning oven.

How we found it

Discovery. Found by Kepler using the transit method.

Cosmic context

Crowded system. One of at least 4 planets orbiting its star.

Properties

density gcc: 4.31
discovery facility: Kepler
discovery method: Transit
dist ly: 3347.763
eccentricity: 0
eq temp k: 1681
insolation: 1225.934
mass earth: 3.15
name: Kepler-256 b
orbital period days: 1.6205
radius earth: 1.59
sys num planets: 4

About Kepler-256 b

Kepler-256 b is an epic exoplanet. It lies about 3,347.8 light-years from Earth, has an equilibrium temperature near 1,681 K, spans roughly 1.59 Earth radii and weighs about 3.15 Earth masses.

Its surface is likely an ocean of molten rock.

How to see it

Like any astronomical target, Kepler-256 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-256 b is an epic exoplanet

Kepler-256 b scores 54 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the epic tier. Another 14 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 7 science badges — Confirmed exoplanet, Super-Earth, Lava world, Multi-planet system, Blasted by starlight, Found by Kepler and Distant (>1000 ly) — 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.