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Entering orbit…
Habitability
23/ 100
Extremely Harsh
Teegarden's Star c rendered in TerraForge from its measured mass, orbit and star

Teegarden's Star c

Also written Teegarden's Starc

Ice World12 light years awayFound 2019
Mass
1.05 × Earth
Radius
1.02 × Earth
Gravity
1.01 g
Surface (est.)
217 K
Year
11.4 days
From Earth
12.5 ly
Mass
1.05 × Earth
Radius
1.02 × Earth
Gravity
1.01 g
Surface (est.)
217 K
Year
11.4 days
From Earth
12.5 ly

Teegarden's Star system

Type
M-type (Red Dwarf)
Spectral type
M7.0 V
Temperature
3,034 K
Radius
0.12 ☉
Mass
0.097 ☉
Planets
3
Luminosity
7.22e-4 ☉

Published by the NASA Exoplanet Archive. This world’s temperature and habitability score are computed from this star’s measured luminosity, not from a stand-in for its class.

Teegarden's Star b0.026 AU1.2 M⊕
Teegarden's Star c0.045 AUYou are here1.1 M⊕
Teegarden's Star d0.079 AU0.8 M⊕
Habitable zone

Star and planets drawn to scale: the star is 13 times as wide as Teegarden's Star c, so only its edge is in view. Orbits spaced as in the star system view.

Estimated: this planet doesn't transit its star, so its size is inferred, not measured

Teegarden's Star c is one of two Earth-mass planets found in 2019 around Teegarden's Star, a very small, dim red dwarf about 12.5 light-years away. With its sibling Teegarden's Star b, it was among the first Earth-mass planets to have their masses measured around such a cool, small star. Teegarden's Star c orbits every 11.4 days and has a minimum mass of about one Earth mass.

Surface. Frozen surface covered in water ice, possible subsurface ocean if tidal heating present

Ice World
Life unlikely — too cold for liquid waterModerate Activity
Teegarden's Star c orbits at 0.05 AU from its star, resulting in frigid temperatures of 217K.
Ice worlds form beyond the frost line where temperatures are low enough for water and other volatiles to freeze solid. They may have subsurface oceans beneath thick ice shells.
Classification Criteria:
✓ Distance: 0.05 AU (>3 AU) or Temperature <200K✓ Temperature: 217K✓ Water content: 34.4% for ice formation

Reading Teegarden's Star c’s atmosphere

Dominant elements: O, Si, Fe, N, C, HThis is what a telescope would measure while Teegarden's Star c crosses in front of its star: starlight passes through the atmosphere and spreads into a rainbow band. Each dark line marks a wavelength the atmosphere absorbed.Every element absorbs its own signature wavelengths — hydrogen always darkens the same two spots, calcium another pair, and so on. Astronomers match the lines in a real spectrum against a library of these signatures to say what an atmosphere is made of, light-years away, without ever visiting. A deeper line generally means more of that element is present.Teegarden's Star c sits about 12 light-years away, found by the radial velocity method. Most catalogued distances trace back to parallax: as Earth orbits the Sun, a nearby star appears to shift very slightly against the distant background stars, and the size of that shift gives its distance directly.
Further reading
ExoplanetsSara Seager (editor)The field's standard reference: how planets are found, how they form, and what their atmospheres are made of.The Planet FactoryElizabeth TaskerHow planets are made, and why so few of them come out like Earth.Imagined LifeJames Trefil & Michael SummersWhat could live on a world like this one: ice shells, supergravity, tidally locked twilight.Envisioning ExoplanetsMichael CarrollWhat these worlds might look like from the ground, painted from the same measurements this page renders.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases — if you buy through these links, TerraForge may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Habitability ScoreExtremely Harsh
23
Contributing Factors
temperature28
Extreme cold - very difficult for life
atmosphere42

Thin nitrogen and methane atmosphere

Nitrogen atmosphere provides protection but not breathable (partially stripped by slow rotation)
water26
Limited water content - frozen solid, no liquid phase at this temperature
magnetic Field30
No magnetic field - vulnerable to solar radiation
geology90
Active geology recycles nutrients and drives carbon cycle
Organic Chemistry80
Core organic elements (CHNO) present
rotation30
Very slow rotation - days and nights each last several Earth days, bringing severe temperature swings

Physical Properties

Mass
1.05x Earth (6.27e+24 kg)
Radius
1.02x Earth (6,475 km)
This planet: 1.02× Earth radiusEarth: 1× (baseline)
Surface Gravity
1.02x Earth (10.0 m/s²)
Surface Temperature
217 K (-56 °C / -70 °F)
Rotation Period
273.6 hours/day (slower than Earth)
This planet: 274 h/dayEarth: 24 h/day

Elemental Composition

How TerraForge built this world

Teegarden's Star c, from the NASA Exoplanet Archive (found 2019). Measured: 1.05 Earth masses, 0.0455 AU, a 3034 K M-type star. Composition inferred from an estimated bulk density of 0.99x Earth's, modeled rather than measured since this isn't a transiting planet — the radius is the archive's estimate, so it can't settle how much water there is; read as rock and iron, with a day locked to its 11.4-day year, as anything orbiting this close would be.

A dark ringed planet hanging over the horizon of a rocky moon, its rings lit by a distant sun

New: Stand on Your Moons 🌒

A planet's surface view isn't the only ground any more. Press the surface button on a planet with moons and it asks where to stand: the planet itself, or any moon still in orbit, each tagged with what it became — ocean, ice, carbon, volcanic. Every moon gets its own ground and sky from its own physics: airless rock under a black sky, ice cracked by geysers over a hidden sea, sulfur plains shaking with eruptions, or orange haze you can't see the sun through. And hanging over the horizon, there's the planet you built.

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