Confirmed Exoplanet Discovered 2015

Kepler-444 b

A rocky terrestrial orbiting the k-type orange Kepler-444, located approximately 118.8 light-years from Earth.

Key parameters at a glance

  • A radius of 0.40 Earth radii
  • A mass of 0.04 Earth masses
  • Surface gravity around 0.23 g
  • An orbital period of 3.600 days
  • Semi-major axis 0.0418 AU
  • Equilibrium temperature 938 K (665 °C)
  • Distance from Earth 118.85 light-years
  • Earth Similarity Index 0.259
  • Travel time at Voyager 1 speed 2,095,919 years
  • Almost certainly tidally locked to its host star given the close orbit

4 siblings around Kepler-444

Kepler-444 b shares its host star with 4 other confirmed planets. Side-by-side measurements below.

Planet Type Radius (R⊕) Mass (M⊕) Period (d) Eq. T (K) Year
Kepler-444 b this Rocky Terrestrial 0.40 0.04 3.600 938 2015
Kepler-444 c Rocky Terrestrial 0.50 0.08 4.546 868 2015
Kepler-444 d Rocky Terrestrial 0.53 0.20 6.189 783 2015
Kepler-444 e Rocky Terrestrial 0.55 0.10 7.743 727 2015
Kepler-444 f Rocky Terrestrial 0.74 0.33 9.740 673 2015

Kepler-444 b Planet Profile

Physical Specs

Radius
0.40 R⊕
Radius (Jupiter)
0.036 R♃
Mass
0.04 M⊕
Mass (Jupiter)
0.000 M♃
Density
3.14 g/cm³
Surface Gravity
0.23 g (Earth)

Classification

Planet Type

Rocky Terrestrial

ESI Score 0.259
HZ Position Inner
Controversial No

Discovery

Year 2015
Method Transit
Facility Kepler
Telescope 0.95 m Kepler Telescope

Size rank in cohort

Rank by radius

#566of 570

top 99.1%

This planet

0.40R⊕

Rocky Terrestrial median

1.01R⊕

Nearest-size peers

Metric Earth Kepler-444 b Jupiter
Radius (R⊕)1.000.4011.21
Mass (M⊕)1.000.04317.83
Density (g/cm³)5.513.141.33
Surface Gravity (g)1.000.232.53
Insolation (S⊕)1.00225.740.037

Star Catalogue Identifiers

HIP

HIP 94931

TIC

TIC 394172596

Gaia DR2

Gaia DR2 2101486923385239808

Gaia DR3

Gaia DR3 2101486923385239808

System

Kepler-444

Percentile among Rocky Terrestrial cohort

Radius 0.403 R⊕ · percentile 1 / cohort 570
Mass 0.037 M⊕ · percentile 0 / cohort 570
Orbital period 3.60 d · percentile 39 / cohort 567
Distance 36.44 pc · percentile 15 / cohort 566
ESI 0.259 · percentile 27 / cohort 570

Orbit & Habitability

Orbital Dynamics

Period
3.600 days
Semi-major axis
0.0418 AU
Eccentricity
0.160
Inclination
88.00 °

Year Length

A year here lasts approximately 3.60 Earth days (1.0% of a terrestrial year) on a mildly elliptical path at a mean orbital distance of 0.0418 AU.

Transit Fingerprint

Depth

0.003 %

Duration

2.045 h

Impact parameter b

0.400

Rp / R★

0.004910

Transit midpoint (BJD)

2,454,966.2599

Photometric dip

Transit produces a flux drop of 28 ppm lasting ≈ 2.05 h.

Extended Orbital Architecture

Planet / star radius ratio

0.004910

Semi-major axis / stellar radius

11.951

Impact parameter (b)

0.400

Transit mid-time (BJD)

2,454,966.2599

Angular separation (arcsec)

1.15000

Eq. Temperature

938K

(665 °C)

Insolation (S⊕)

225.74

Earth = 1.00

Earth Similarity (ESI)

0.259

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

Campante et al. 2015

Instrument

Kepler CCD Array

Publication

2015-02

Observation locale

Space

Host System: Kepler-444

Spectral Class

K-type orange

Effective Temperature

5,046 K — cooler than the Sun (5,778 K)

Estimated Age

11.23 Gyr — older than the Sun (4.6 Gyr)

Stellar Radius

0.752 R☉

Stellar Mass

0.758 M☉

Metallicity [Fe/H]

-0.55

Extended Stellar Properties

Surface gravity (log g)

4.563 dex

Stellar density

2.493 g/cm³

Systemic radial velocity

-121.90 km/s

Rotational v·sin i

2.00 km/s

Metallicity ratio

[Fe/H]

Distance
36.44 parsec
Light-years 118.85 ly
V-band magnitude
8.87 mag
Voyager-speed travel 2,095,919 yr

Multi-band Host Photometry — 15 bands

6.69.79.69B8.87V8.64Gaia8.72Kepler8.11TESS9.66Sloan g8.84Sloan r7.96Ic7.24J6.77H6.70K6.62W16.62W26.63W36.56W4

Astrometric Data

Parallax

27.414 mas

Total Proper Motion

639.253 mas/yr

PM Right Ascension

94.68 mas/yr

PM Declination

-632.20 mas/yr

Galactic Cartesian (pc)

x = 0.253 · y = -0.703 · z = 0.664

Equatorial (J2000)

RA 289.75283° · Dec 41.63188°

Galactic ℓ, b

73.361° · 12.891°

Ecliptic λ, β

303.531° · 62.790°

HTM-20 index

-1506167882

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