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Uncommon exoplanet 29 EP

WASP-38 b

RA 243.9597° · Dec 10.0324° · exoplanet

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges
29 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Hot Jupiter +10
  • Tidally locked +10
  • Confirmed exoplanet +5
  • Gas giant +4
Total score 29

5 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Confirmed exoplanet · +5
  • Gas giant · +4
  • Hot Jupiter · +10
  • Tidally locked · +10

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.

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 9.4 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 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. ≈ 7.8 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

density gcc
2.3
diameter km
175870.6223
discovery facility
SuperWASP
discovery method
Transit
discovery year
2010
dist ly
444.3549
eccentricity
0.03
eq temp k
1250
host star teff
6180
inclination
89.5
insolation
501.5014
mag
9.391
mass earth
1093.3352
name
WASP-38 b
orbital period days
6.8719
radius earth
13.7871
semi major au
0.0752
spect
F8 V
sys num planets
1
sys num stars
1
tidally locked
yes
tidally locked inferred
yes

About WASP-38 b

WASP-38 b is an uncommon exoplanet. It lies about 444.4 light-years from Earth, shines at apparent magnitude 9.39, has spectral type F8 V and has an equilibrium temperature near 1,250 K.

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 9.39, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, WASP-38 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 WASP-38 b is an uncommon exoplanet

WASP-38 b scores 29 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 5 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Confirmed exoplanet, Gas giant, Hot Jupiter and Tidally locked — 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.