Confirmed Exoplanet Discovered 2013

Kepler-61 b

A sub-neptune orbiting the k-type orange Kepler-61, located approximately 1,092.9 light-years from Earth.

Key parameters at a glance

  • A radius of 2.15 Earth radii
  • A mass of 5.27 Earth masses
  • Surface gravity around 1.14 g
  • An orbital period of 59.878 days
  • Semi-major axis 0.2486 AU
  • Equilibrium temperature 273 K (0 °C)
  • Distance from Earth 1,092.88 light-years
  • Earth Similarity Index 0.783
  • Travel time at Voyager 1 speed 19,272,942 years

Context from the literature

Kepler-61b is a super-Earth exoplanet orbiting within parts of the habitable zone of the K-type main-sequence star Kepler-61. It is located about 1,100 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Cygnus. It was discovered in 2013 using the transit method, in which the dimming effect that a planet causes as it crosses in front of its star is measured, by NASA's Kepler spacecraft.

Excerpted from Wikipedia · full article

Kepler-61 b Planet Profile

Physical Specs

Radius
2.15 R⊕
Radius (Jupiter)
0.192 R♃
Mass
5.27 M⊕
Mass (Jupiter)
0.017 M♃
Density
2.91 g/cm³
Surface Gravity
1.14 g (Earth)

Classification

Planet Type

Sub-Neptune

ESI Score 0.783
HZ Position Inner
Controversial No

Discovery

Year 2013
Method Transit
Facility Kepler
Telescope 0.95 m Kepler Telescope

Size rank in cohort

Rank by radius

#1741of 1978

top 88.0%

This planet

2.15R⊕

Sub-Neptune median

2.71R⊕

Nearest-size peers

Metric Earth Kepler-61 b Jupiter
Radius (R⊕)1.002.1511.21
Mass (M⊕)1.005.27317.83
Density (g/cm³)5.512.911.33
Surface Gravity (g)1.001.142.53
Insolation (S⊕)1.001.690.037

Star Catalogue Identifiers

TIC

TIC 271537530

Gaia DR2

Gaia DR2 2077889892023816960

Gaia DR3

Gaia DR3 2077889892023816960

System

Kepler-61

Percentile among Sub-Neptune cohort

Radius 2.150 R⊕ · percentile 11 / cohort 1978
Mass 5.270 M⊕ · percentile 12 / cohort 1978
Orbital period 59.88 d · percentile 89 / cohort 1946
Distance 335.08 pc · percentile 38 / cohort 1975
ESI 0.783 · percentile 99 / cohort 1978

Orbit & Habitability

Orbital Dynamics

Period
59.878 days
Semi-major axis
0.2486 AU
Eccentricity
0.250
Inclination
89.80 °

Year Length

A year here lasts approximately 59.88 Earth days (16.4% of a terrestrial year) on a mildly elliptical path at a mean orbital distance of 0.2486 AU.

Transit Fingerprint

Depth

0.138 %

Duration

4.845 h

Impact parameter b

0.290

Rp / R★

0.033010

Transit midpoint (BJD)

2,454,984.1880

Photometric dip

Transit produces a flux drop of 1,385 ppm lasting ≈ 4.85 h.

Extended Orbital Architecture

Planet / star radius ratio

0.033010

Semi-major axis / stellar radius

90.600

Impact parameter (b)

0.290

Transit mid-time (BJD)

2,454,984.1880

Angular separation (arcsec)

0.74200

Eq. Temperature

273K

(0 °C)

Insolation (S⊕)

1.69

Earth = 1.00

Earth Similarity (ESI)

0.783

0 = alien, 1 = Earth-identical

Inside the inner HZ boundary (too hot for liquid water) — liquid water is physically possible with adequate atmospheric pressure.

Discovery Paper

Primary reference

Ballard et al. 2013

Instrument

Kepler CCD Array

Publication

2013-08

Observation locale

Space

Host System: Kepler-61

Spectral Class

K-type orange

Effective Temperature

4,017 K — cooler than the Sun (5,778 K)

Estimated Age

1.00 Gyr — younger than the Sun (4.6 Gyr)

Stellar Radius

0.620 R☉

Stellar Mass

0.635 M☉

Metallicity [Fe/H]

0.03

Extended Stellar Properties

Surface gravity (log g)

4.670 dex

Stellar density

4.932 g/cm³

Metallicity ratio

[Fe/H]

Distance
335.08 parsec
Light-years 1,092.88 ly
V-band magnitude
15.28 mag
Voyager-speed travel 19,272,942 yr

Multi-band Host Photometry — 16 bands

9.017.117.14B15.28V15.04Gaia15.00Kepler14.24TESS16.24Sloan g14.96Sloan r14.46Sloan i14.18Sloan z13.08J12.43H12.27K12.18W112.25W212.43W39.03W4

Astrometric Data

Parallax

2.957 mas

Total Proper Motion

10.722 mas/yr

PM Right Ascension

-2.25 mas/yr

PM Declination

10.48 mas/yr

Galactic Cartesian (pc)

x = 0.315 · y = -0.667 · z = 0.675

Equatorial (J2000)

RA 295.30449° · Dec 42.47532°

Galactic ℓ, b

76.010° · 9.582°

Ecliptic λ, β

312.569° · 62.225°

HTM-20 index

-1572054991

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