Confirmed Exoplanet Discovered 2016

K2-81 b

A super-earth orbiting the k-type orange K2-81, located approximately 823.0 light-years from Earth.

Key parameters at a glance

  • A radius of 1.97 Earth radii
  • A mass of 4.54 Earth masses
  • Surface gravity around 1.17 g
  • An orbital period of 6.102 days
  • Semi-major axis 0.0590 AU
  • Distance from Earth 822.95 light-years
  • Earth Similarity Index 0.791
  • Travel time at Voyager 1 speed 14,512,728 years
  • Almost certainly tidally locked to its host star given the close orbit

K2-81 b Planet Profile

Physical Specs

Radius
1.97 R⊕
Radius (Jupiter)
0.176 R♃
Mass
4.54 M⊕
Mass (Jupiter)
0.014 M♃
Density
3.26 g/cm³
Surface Gravity
1.17 g (Earth)

Classification

Planet Type

Super-Earth

ESI Score 0.791
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

#38of 1176

top 3.1%

This planet

1.97R⊕

Super-Earth median

1.60R⊕

Nearest-size peers

Metric Earth K2-81 b Jupiter
Radius (R⊕)1.001.9711.21
Mass (M⊕)1.004.54317.83
Density (g/cm³)5.513.261.33
Surface Gravity (g)1.001.172.53
Insolation (S⊕)1.0062.900.037

Star Catalogue Identifiers

TIC

TIC 59040029

Gaia DR2

Gaia DR2 39738656627501056

Gaia DR3

Gaia DR3 39738656627501056

System

K2-81

Percentile among Super-Earth cohort

Radius 1.970 R⊕ · percentile 96 / cohort 1176
Mass 4.540 M⊕ · percentile 88 / cohort 1176
Orbital period 6.10 d · percentile 48 / cohort 1164
Distance 252.32 pc · percentile 27 / cohort 1171
ESI 0.791 · percentile 89 / cohort 1176

Orbit & Habitability

Orbital Dynamics

Period
6.102 days
Semi-major axis
0.0590 AU
Eccentricity
0.060
Inclination
89.29 °

Year Length

A year here lasts approximately 6.10 Earth days (1.7% of a terrestrial year) on a nearly circular orbit at a mean orbital distance of 0.0590 AU.

Transit Fingerprint

Depth

0.108 %

Duration

2.150 h

Rp / R★

0.028504

Transit midpoint (BJD)

2,457,070.4400

Photometric dip

Transit produces a flux drop of 1,076 ppm lasting ≈ 2.15 h.

Extended Orbital Architecture

Planet / star radius ratio

0.028504

Semi-major axis / stellar radius

19.770

Transit mid-time (BJD)

2,457,070.4400

Long. of periastron (ω)

-27.89°

Angular separation (arcsec)

0.23400

Eq. Temperature

 

Insolation (S⊕)

62.90

Earth = 1.00

Earth Similarity (ESI)

0.791

0 = alien, 1 = Earth-identical

Inside the inner HZ boundary (too hot for liquid water). Close-orbiting tidally-locked around a cool host.

Discovery Paper

Primary reference

Crossfield et al. 2016

Instrument

Kepler CCD Array

Publication

2016-09

Observation locale

Space

Host System: K2-81

Spectral Class

K-type orange

Effective Temperature

4,674 K — cooler than the Sun (5,778 K)

Estimated Age

Stellar Radius

0.635 R☉

Stellar Mass

0.745 M☉

Metallicity [Fe/H]

Distance
252.32 parsec
Light-years 822.95 ly
V-band magnitude
14.31 mag
Voyager-speed travel 14,512,728 yr

Multi-band Host Photometry — 12 bands

8.715.615.56B14.31V13.90Gaia13.93Kepler13.14TESS12.05J11.42H11.32K11.22W111.28W211.33W38.74W4

Astrometric Data

Parallax

3.935 mas

Total Proper Motion

36.862 mas/yr

PM Right Ascension

-8.09 mas/yr

PM Declination

-35.96 mas/yr

Galactic Cartesian (pc)

x = 0.520 · y = 0.816 · z = 0.250

Equatorial (J2000)

RA 57.48546° · Dec 14.50206°

Galactic ℓ, b

174.635° · -29.937°

Ecliptic λ, β

58.479° · -5.451°

HTM-20 index

-88477613

Similar Worlds

Explore Related Categories