Star system, 2,000 light-years
PSR B1257+12 and its three planets
PSR B1257+12 b is an exoplanet about 0.338 times Earth's width (a size estimated from its mass), 2,000 light-years away.
PSR B1257+12 is a star of spectral type the table does not record, 2,000 light-years from us, with three known planets. This page takes them one at a time.
Drawn at the system's own scale, every orbit from the Archive's numbers.
What is measured, what is computed, what is imagined.
measured The period, and where the table says so the width and the mass, by the method named in each section.
computed Anything marked computed: the size of an orbit where Kepler's third law corrects the table, the temperature of a bare ball at that distance, the starlight received, and the habitable zone.
imagined The picture is an artist's impression. Nobody has seen the surface of a planet of another star: its colour, clouds and land are not known, and the share picture says so in its corner.
The planets
PSR B1257+12 b
PSR B1257+12 b is an exoplanet about 0.338 times Earth's width (a size estimated from its mass), 2,000 light-years away.
- Width
- 0.338 × Earth's estimated
- Mass
- 0.02 times Earth's measured
- One year
- 25.262 days measured
- Distance from its star
- 0.19 au from the Archive
It was found by tiny changes in the timing of the radio pulses of its star, a pulsar in 1994. No habitable zone is computed for its star (a pulsar, a binary or a star outside the formula's range), so none is claimed.
See PSR B1257+12 b in 3D · The picture is an artist's impression.
PSR B1257+12 c
PSR B1257+12 c is an exoplanet about 1.91 times Earth's width (a size estimated from its mass), 2,000 light-years away.
- Width
- 1.91 × Earth's estimated
- Mass
- 4.3 times Earth's measured
- One year
- 66.5419 days measured
- Distance from its star
- 0.36 au from the Archive
It was found by tiny changes in the timing of the radio pulses of its star, a pulsar in 1992. No habitable zone is computed for its star (a pulsar, a binary or a star outside the formula's range), so none is claimed.
See PSR B1257+12 c in 3D · The picture is an artist's impression.
PSR B1257+12 d
PSR B1257+12 d is an exoplanet about 1.8 times Earth's width (a size estimated from its mass), 2,000 light-years away.
- Width
- 1.8 × Earth's estimated
- Mass
- 3.9 times Earth's measured
- One year
- 98.2114 days measured
- Distance from its star
- 0.46 au from the Archive
It was found by tiny changes in the timing of the radio pulses of its star, a pulsar in 1992. No habitable zone is computed for its star (a pulsar, a binary or a star outside the formula's range), so none is claimed.
See PSR B1257+12 d in 3D · The picture is an artist's impression.
The star
- Mass
- 1.4 × the Sun's
- Distance
- 2,000 light-years