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Epic exoplanet 54 EP

Kepler-43 b

RA 285.2408° · Dec 46.6682° · exoplanet

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Score breakdown

· 8 badges
54 pts · Epic
Epic 78 pts → Anomaly
  • Lava world +14
  • Tidally locked +10
  • Orbits a Sun-like star +8
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • Confirmed exoplanet +5
  • Gas giant +4
  • Blasted by starlight +4
  • Found by Kepler +3
Total score 54

24 more points to reach Anomaly.

Badges

  • Confirmed exoplanet · +5
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • Gas giant · +4
  • Lava world · +14
  • Tidally locked · +10
  • Blasted by starlight · +4
  • Found by Kepler · +3
  • 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. 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. 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 14 it is far too faint for the eye: this one belongs to cameras and long exposures.
  • 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 July — that's when to go looking.

Could we get there?

  • Verdict. Impossible with our current technology — and the next millennium of it.

Properties

density gcc
5
diameter km
174297.7956
discovery facility
Kepler
discovery method
Transit
discovery year
2011
dist ly
3280.6075
eccentricity
0.017
eq temp k
1620
host star teff
6041
inclination
84.646
insolation
1138.115
mag
13.986
mass earth
1026.5909
name
Kepler-43 b
orbital period days
3.0241
radius earth
13.6638
semi major au
0.046
spect
F8 V
sys num planets
1
sys num stars
1
tidally locked
yes
tidally locked inferred
yes

About Kepler-43 b

Kepler-43 b is an epic exoplanet. It lies about 3,280.6 light-years from Earth, shines at apparent magnitude 13.99, has spectral type F8 V and has an equilibrium temperature near 1,620 K.

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

How to see it

At apparent magnitude 13.99, it takes a larger telescope or a long-exposure image to capture.

Like any astronomical target, Kepler-43 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 Kepler-43 b is an epic exoplanet

Kepler-43 b scores 54 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the epic tier. Another 24 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 8 science badges — Confirmed exoplanet, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Gas giant, Lava world, Tidally locked, Blasted by starlight, Found by Kepler 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.