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Rare exoplanet 41 EP

HD 134987 b

RA 228.3675° · Dec -25.3097° · exoplanet

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges
41 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Found before the year 2000 +18
  • Orbits a Sun-like star +8
  • Multi-planet system +6
  • Confirmed exoplanet +5
  • Gas giant +4
Total score 41

9 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Confirmed exoplanet · +5
  • Gas giant · +4
  • Multi-planet system · +6
  • Orbits a Sun-like star · +8
  • Found before the year 2000 · +18

Trivia

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

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 6.5 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in.
  • Southern sky. It rides the southern half of the sky — an easier target the further south you are.
  • Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around May — 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. ≈ 1.5 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

density gcc
1.14
diameter km
172208.7
discovery facility
W. M. Keck Observatory
discovery method
Radial Velocity
discovery year
1999
dist ly
85.3889
eccentricity
0.23
eq temp k
339.45
host star teff
5736
insolation
2.7435
mag
6.47
mass earth
511.7063
name
HD 134987 b
orbital period days
258.18
radius earth
13.5
semi major au
0.81
spect
G5 V
sys num planets
2
sys num stars
1

About HD 134987 b

HD 134987 b is a rare exoplanet. It lies about 85.4 light-years from Earth, shines at apparent magnitude 6.47, has spectral type G5 V and has an equilibrium temperature near 339 K.

Lighter than Neptune — a puffed-up ball of hydrogen and helium with no surface anywhere on it to stand on.

How to see it

At apparent magnitude 6.47, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 134987 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 134987 b is a rare exoplanet

HD 134987 b scores 41 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 9 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Confirmed exoplanet, Gas giant, Multi-planet system, Orbits a Sun-like star and Found before the year 2000 — 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.