Key parameters at a glance

A radius of 2.05 Earth radii
A mass of 4.86 Earth masses
Surface gravity around 1.16 g
An orbital period of 19.154 days
Semi-major axis 0.1382 AU
Equilibrium temperature 889 K (616 °C)
Distance from Earth 1,465.21 light-years
Earth Similarity Index 0.305
Travel time at Voyager 1 speed 25,839,037 years

K2-46 b Planet Profile

Physical Specs

Radius

2.05 R⊕

Radius (Jupiter)

0.183 R♃

Mass

4.86 M⊕

Mass (Jupiter)

0.015 M♃

Density

3.10 g/cm³

Surface Gravity

1.16 g (Earth)

Classification

Planet Type

Sub-Neptune

ESI Score 0.305

HZ Position Inner

Controversial No

Discovery

Year 2016

Method Transit

Facility K2

Telescope 0.95 m Kepler Telescope

Size rank in cohort

Rank by radius

#1888of 1978

top 95.4%

This planet

2.05R⊕

Sub-Neptune median

2.71R⊕

Nearest-size peers

Kepler-337 c 2.05 R⊕ Kepler-244 c 2.05 R⊕ Kepler-363 d 2.05 R⊕

Metric	Earth	K2-46 b	Jupiter
Radius (R⊕)	1.00	2.05	11.21
Mass (M⊕)	1.00	4.86	317.83
Density (g/cm³)	5.51	3.10	1.33
Surface Gravity (g)	1.00	1.16	2.53
Insolation (S⊕)	1.00	119.00	0.037

Star Catalogue Identifiers

TIC

TIC 49430892

Gaia DR2

Gaia DR2 3794162976731206272

Gaia DR3

Gaia DR3 3794162976731206272

System

K2-46

Percentile among Sub-Neptune cohort

Radius 2.050 R⊕ · percentile 4 / cohort 1978

Mass 4.860 M⊕ · percentile 6 / cohort 1978

Orbital period 19.15 d · percentile 61 / cohort 1946

Distance 449.24 pc · percentile 44 / cohort 1975

ESI 0.305 · percentile 29 / cohort 1978

Orbit & Habitability

Orbital Dynamics

Period

19.154 days

Semi-major axis

0.1382 AU

Eccentricity

—

Inclination

88.65 °

Year Length

A year here lasts approximately 19.15 Earth days (5.2% of a terrestrial year) at a mean orbital distance of 0.1382 AU.

Transit Fingerprint

Depth

0.033 %

Duration

6.730 h

Impact parameter b

0.130

Rp / R★

0.014500

Transit midpoint (BJD)

2,456,815.3353

Photometric dip

Transit produces a flux drop of 333 ppm lasting ≈ 6.73 h.

Extended Orbital Architecture

Planet / star radius ratio

0.014500

Semi-major axis / stellar radius

18.822

Impact parameter (b)

0.130

Transit mid-time (BJD)

2,456,815.3353

Angular separation (arcsec)

0.30800

Eq. Temperature

889K

(616 °C)

Insolation (S⊕)

119.00

Earth = 1.00

Earth Similarity (ESI)

0.305

0 = alien, 1 = Earth-identical

Inside the inner HZ boundary (too hot for liquid water) — the surface is too hot to retain surface water.

Discovery Paper

Primary reference

Crossfield et al. 2016

Instrument

Kepler CCD Array

Publication

2016-09

Observation locale

Space

Discovery cohort

Planets confirmed in 2016 at K2 (12 shown).

K2-72 d · Rocky Terrestrial K2-72 b · Rocky Terrestrial K2-91 b · Rocky Terrestrial K2-72 c · Rocky Terrestrial K2-102 b · Super-Earth K2-90 c · Super-Earth K2-72 e · Super-Earth K2-83 b · Rocky Terrestrial K2-88 b · Rocky Terrestrial K2-80 c · Super-Earth K2-83 c · Super-Earth K2-65 b · Super-Earth

Host System: K2-46

Spectral Class

F-type yellow-white

Effective Temperature

6,256 K — hotter than the Sun (5,778 K)

Estimated Age

—

Stellar Radius

1.290 R☉

Stellar Mass

0.960 M☉

Metallicity [Fe/H]

-0.32

Extended Stellar Properties

Surface gravity (log g)

4.198 dex

Stellar density

0.601 g/cm³

Metallicity ratio

[Fe/H]

Distance

449.24 parsec

Light-years 1,465.21 ly

V-band magnitude

12.14 mag

Voyager-speed travel 25,839,037 yr

Multi-band Host Photometry — 12 bands

Astrometric Data

Parallax

2.198 mas

Total Proper Motion

25.815 mas/yr

PM Right Ascension

-21.84 mas/yr

PM Declination

13.76 mas/yr

Galactic Cartesian (pc)

x = -0.995 · y = 0.100 · z = -0.016

Equatorial (J2000)

RA 174.26625° · Dec -0.90721°

Galactic ℓ, b

267.388° · 56.742°

Ecliptic λ, β

175.093° · -3.111°

HTM-20 index

-1985303184