Rare exoplanet 45 EP

HD 159868 b

RA 264.7467° · Dec -43.1462° · exoplanet

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges

45 pts · Rare

Rare 46 pts → Epic

In the habitable zone +30
Multi-planet system +6
Confirmed exoplanet +5
Gas giant +4

Total score 45

1 more point to reach Epic.

Badges

Confirmed exoplanet · +5
In the habitable zone · +30
Gas giant · +4
Multi-planet system · +6

Trivia

What makes it special

Goldilocks zone. Sits where it's neither too hot nor too cold — liquid water could exist.

Could we get there?

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

Getting there

Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 3.2 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
Fastest probe ever. ≈ 284.4 thousand years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.
At 10% light speed. ≈ 1822 years in a starship at a tenth of light speed.
Distance. 182 light-years from Earth.

Look-back time

Look-back time. The light you'd see left around the year 1844.

Saying hello

Say hello. A radio message and its reply would take 364 years round-trip.

Standing on it

A year here. A full year lasts about 3.2 Earth years.

By the numbers

Size. About 13.3× the width of Earth.
Volume. About 2353 Earths could fit inside it.
Mass. Roughly 705× Earth's mass — about 2.2 Jupiters.
Your weight. You'd weigh about 4.0× your Earth weight standing here.
Temperature. A surprisingly temperate -17°C average.

How we found it

Discovery. Found by Anglo-Australian Telescope using the radial velocity method.

Cosmic context

Crowded system. One of at least 2 planets orbiting its star.

Properties

density gcc: 1.65
discovery facility: Anglo-Australian Telescope
discovery method: Radial Velocity
dist ly: 182.1591
eccentricity: 0.024
eq temp k: 255.69
habitable zone: yes
insolation: 0.668
mass earth: 704.9469
name: HD 159868 b
orbital period days: 1184.1
radius earth: 13.3
sys num planets: 2

About HD 159868 b

HD 159868 b is a rare exoplanet. It lies about 182.2 light-years from Earth, has an equilibrium temperature near 256 K, spans roughly 13.3 Earth radii and weighs about 704.95 Earth masses.

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

How to see it

Like any astronomical target, HD 159868 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 159868 b is a rare exoplanet

HD 159868 b scores 45 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 1 point would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Confirmed exoplanet, In the habitable zone, Gas giant and Multi-planet system — 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.