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Epic exoplanet 52 EP

TOI-261.01

RA 15.2181° · Dec -24.4240° · exoplanet

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Score breakdown

· 7 badges
52 pts · Epic
Epic 78 pts → Anomaly
  • Lava world +14
  • Tidally locked +10
  • Orbits a Sun-like star +8
  • Multi-planet system +6
  • Confirmed exoplanet +5
  • Sub-Neptune +5
  • Found by TESS +4
Total score 52

26 more points to reach Anomaly.

Badges

  • Confirmed exoplanet · +5
  • Sub-Neptune · +5
  • Lava world · +14
  • Tidally locked · +10
  • Multi-planet system · +6
  • Found by TESS · +4
  • Orbits a Sun-like star · +8

Trivia

What makes it special

  • Lava world. Its surface is almost certainly an ocean of molten rock, kept liquid by the star it hugs.

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 2 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 9.6 you'll want a small backyard telescope.
  • 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 October — that's when to go looking.

Properties

density gcc
1.85
diameter km
38842.4542
discovery facility
Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS)
discovery method
Transit
discovery year
2021
dist ly
373.4323
eq temp k
1722.49
host star teff
5890.3
insolation
874.7956
mag
9.56
mass earth
9.51
name
TOI-261.01
orbital period days
3.3639
radius earth
3.045
semi major au
0.0348
sys num planets
2
sys num stars
1
tidally locked
yes
tidally locked inferred
yes

About TOI-261.01

TOI-261.01 is an epic exoplanet. It lies about 373.4 light-years from Earth, shines at apparent magnitude 9.56, has an equilibrium temperature near 1,722 K and spans roughly 3.04 Earth radii.

Its surface is almost certainly an ocean of molten rock, kept liquid by the star it hugs.

How to see it

At apparent magnitude 9.56, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, TOI-261.01 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 TOI-261.01 is an epic exoplanet

TOI-261.01 scores 52 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the epic tier. Another 26 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 7 science badges — Confirmed exoplanet, Sub-Neptune, Lava world, Tidally locked, Multi-planet system, Found by TESS 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.