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Uncommon exoplanet 27 EP

L 168-9 b

RA 350.0286° · Dec -60.0657° · exoplanet

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges
27 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Tidally locked +10
  • Super-Earth +8
  • Confirmed exoplanet +5
  • Found by TESS +4
Total score 27

7 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Confirmed exoplanet · +5
  • Super-Earth · +8
  • Tidally locked · +10
  • Found by TESS · +4

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. Its density says rock, though lighter than Earth's mix: probably less iron, or a thick shell of water and ice over the top.

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 11 you'll want a small backyard telescope.
  • Southern sky only. So far south it never rises for most of the northern hemisphere. To see it you'd have to travel to Chile, South Africa or Australia.
  • Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around September — 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. ≈ 1.4 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

density gcc
5.18
diameter km
20792.606
discovery facility
Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS)
discovery method
Transit
discovery year
2020
dist ly
82.0269
eccentricity
0
eq temp k
998
host star teff
3842
inclination
84.27
insolation
149.3748
mag
11.005
mass earth
4.07
name
L 168-9 b
orbital period days
1.4015
radius earth
1.63
semi major au
0.0208
spect
M0.5 V
sys num planets
1
sys num stars
1
tidally locked
yes
tidally locked inferred
yes

About L 168-9 b

L 168-9 b is an uncommon exoplanet. It lies about 82 light-years from Earth, shines at apparent magnitude 11.01, has spectral type M0.5 V and has an equilibrium temperature near 998 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 11.01, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, L 168-9 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 L 168-9 b is an uncommon exoplanet

L 168-9 b scores 27 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 7 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Confirmed exoplanet, Super-Earth, Tidally locked and Found by TESS — 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.