Confirmed Exoplanet Discovered 2016

Kepler-1221 b

A super-earth orbiting the k-type orange Kepler-1221, located approximately 2,979.9 light-years from Earth.

Key parameters at a glance

  • A radius of 1.88 Earth radii
  • A mass of 4.19 Earth masses
  • Surface gravity around 1.19 g
  • An orbital period of 12.001 days
  • Semi-major axis 0.0906 AU
  • Equilibrium temperature 632 K (359 °C)
  • Distance from Earth 2,979.92 light-years
  • Earth Similarity Index 0.444
  • Travel time at Voyager 1 speed 52,550,962 years
  • Almost certainly tidally locked to its host star given the close orbit

Kepler-1221 b Planet Profile

Physical Specs

Radius
1.88 R⊕
Radius (Jupiter)
0.168 R♃
Mass
4.19 M⊕
Mass (Jupiter)
0.013 M♃
Density
3.47 g/cm³
Surface Gravity
1.19 g (Earth)

Classification

Planet Type

Super-Earth

ESI Score 0.444
HZ Position Inner
Controversial No

Discovery

Year 2016
Method Transit
Facility Kepler
Telescope 0.95 m Kepler Telescope

Size rank in cohort

Rank by radius

#153of 1176

top 12.9%

This planet

1.88R⊕

Super-Earth median

1.60R⊕

Nearest-size peers

Metric Earth Kepler-1221 b Jupiter
Radius (R⊕)1.001.8811.21
Mass (M⊕)1.004.19317.83
Density (g/cm³)5.513.471.33
Surface Gravity (g)1.001.192.53
Insolation (S⊕)1.0037.810.037

Star Catalogue Identifiers

TIC

TIC 279912260

Gaia DR2

Gaia DR2 2106498767960692480

System

Kepler-1221

Percentile among Super-Earth cohort

Radius 1.880 R⊕ · percentile 86 / cohort 1176
Mass 4.190 M⊕ · percentile 79 / cohort 1176
Orbital period 12.00 d · percentile 69 / cohort 1164
Distance 913.65 pc · percentile 76 / cohort 1171
ESI 0.444 · percentile 67 / cohort 1176

Orbit & Habitability

Orbital Dynamics

Period
12.001 days
Semi-major axis
0.0906 AU
Eccentricity
0.000
Inclination
88.53 °

Year Length

A year here lasts approximately 12.00 Earth days (3.3% of a terrestrial year) on a nearly circular orbit at a mean orbital distance of 0.0906 AU.

Transit Fingerprint

Depth

0.048 %

Duration

3.433 h

Impact parameter b

0.595

Rp / R★

0.021361

Transit midpoint (BJD)

2,454,975.0415

Photometric dip

Transit produces a flux drop of 480 ppm lasting ≈ 3.43 h.

Extended Orbital Architecture

Planet / star radius ratio

0.021361

Semi-major axis / stellar radius

19.980

Impact parameter (b)

0.595

Transit mid-time (BJD)

2,454,975.0415

Angular separation (arcsec)

0.09920

Eq. Temperature

632K

(359 °C)

Insolation (S⊕)

37.81

Earth = 1.00

Earth Similarity (ESI)

0.444

0 = alien, 1 = Earth-identical

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

Discovery Paper

Primary reference

Morton et al. 2016

Instrument

Kepler CCD Array

Publication

2016-05

Observation locale

Space

Host System: Kepler-1221

Spectral Class

K-type orange

Effective Temperature

5,194 K — cooler than the Sun (5,778 K)

Estimated Age

4.57 Gyr — younger than the Sun (4.6 Gyr)

Stellar Radius

0.820 R☉

Stellar Mass

0.870 M☉

Metallicity [Fe/H]

0.09

Extended Stellar Properties

Surface gravity (log g)

4.550 dex

Stellar density

1.047 g/cm³

Metallicity ratio

[Fe/H]

Distance
913.65 parsec
Light-years 2,979.92 ly
V-band magnitude
15.91 mag
Voyager-speed travel 52,550,962 yr

Multi-band Host Photometry — 16 bands

9.416.616.57B15.91V15.58Gaia15.56Kepler15.01TESS16.23Sloan g15.53Sloan r15.28Sloan i15.13Sloan z14.12J13.74H13.67K13.59W113.66W213.16W39.42W4

Astrometric Data

Total Proper Motion

9.667 mas/yr

PM Right Ascension

2.10 mas/yr

PM Declination

-9.44 mas/yr

Galactic Cartesian (pc)

x = 0.190 · y = -0.672 · z = 0.716

Equatorial (J2000)

RA 285.82236° · Dec 45.71184°

Galactic ℓ, b

76.075° · 17.115°

Ecliptic λ, β

299.856° · 67.518°

HTM-20 index

-1228699211

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