Confirmed Exoplanet Discovered 2016

Kepler-621 b

A sub-neptune orbiting the k-type orange Kepler-621, located approximately 1,268.7 light-years from Earth.

Key parameters at a glance

  • A radius of 2.30 Earth radii
  • A mass of 5.90 Earth masses
  • Surface gravity around 1.12 g
  • An orbital period of 2.628 days
  • Semi-major axis 0.0310 AU
  • Equilibrium temperature 737 K (464 °C)
  • Distance from Earth 1,268.75 light-years
  • Earth Similarity Index 0.355
  • Travel time at Voyager 1 speed 22,374,349 years
  • Almost certainly tidally locked to its host star given the close orbit

Kepler-621 b Planet Profile

Physical Specs

Radius
2.30 R⊕
Radius (Jupiter)
0.205 R♃
Mass
5.90 M⊕
Mass (Jupiter)
0.019 M♃
Density
2.66 g/cm³
Surface Gravity
1.12 g (Earth)

Classification

Planet Type

Sub-Neptune

ESI Score 0.355
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

#1499of 1978

top 75.7%

This planet

2.30R⊕

Sub-Neptune median

2.71R⊕

Nearest-size peers

Metric Earth Kepler-621 b Jupiter
Radius (R⊕)1.002.3011.21
Mass (M⊕)1.005.90317.83
Density (g/cm³)5.512.661.33
Surface Gravity (g)1.001.122.53
Insolation (S⊕)1.0069.560.037

Star Catalogue Identifiers

TIC

TIC 122706051

Gaia DR2

Gaia DR2 2053067935992494848

Gaia DR3

Gaia DR3 2053067935992494848

System

Kepler-621

Percentile among Sub-Neptune cohort

Radius 2.300 R⊕ · percentile 24 / cohort 1978
Mass 5.900 M⊕ · percentile 23 / cohort 1978
Orbital period 2.63 d · percentile 4 / cohort 1946
Distance 389.00 pc · percentile 40 / cohort 1975
ESI 0.355 · percentile 42 / cohort 1978

Orbit & Habitability

Orbital Dynamics

Period
2.628 days
Semi-major axis
0.0310 AU
Eccentricity
0.000
Inclination
86.15 °

Year Length

A year here lasts approximately 2.63 Earth days (0.7% of a terrestrial year) on a nearly circular orbit at a mean orbital distance of 0.0310 AU.

Transit Fingerprint

Depth

0.094 %

Duration

1.855 h

Impact parameter b

0.580

Rp / R★

0.031073

Transit midpoint (BJD)

2,455,002.7197

Photometric dip

Transit produces a flux drop of 937 ppm lasting ≈ 1.85 h.

Extended Orbital Architecture

Planet / star radius ratio

0.031073

Semi-major axis / stellar radius

9.000

Impact parameter (b)

0.580

Transit mid-time (BJD)

2,455,002.7197

Angular separation (arcsec)

0.07970

Eq. Temperature

737K

(464 °C)

Insolation (S⊕)

69.56

Earth = 1.00

Earth Similarity (ESI)

0.355

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-621

Spectral Class

K-type orange

Effective Temperature

4,521 K — cooler than the Sun (5,778 K)

Estimated Age

3.63 Gyr — younger than the Sun (4.6 Gyr)

Stellar Radius

0.680 R☉

Stellar Mass

0.720 M☉

Metallicity [Fe/H]

-0.02

Extended Stellar Properties

Surface gravity (log g)

4.630 dex

Stellar density

2.075 g/cm³

Metallicity ratio

[Fe/H]

Distance
389.00 parsec
Light-years 1,268.75 ly
V-band magnitude
15.22 mag
Voyager-speed travel 22,374,349 yr

Multi-band Host Photometry — 16 bands

9.316.716.67B15.22V14.90Gaia14.92Kepler14.16TESS15.96Sloan g14.84Sloan r14.47Sloan i14.23Sloan z13.15J12.53H12.41K12.34W112.41W212.28W39.25W4

Astrometric Data

Parallax

0.990 mas

Total Proper Motion

11.169 mas/yr

PM Right Ascension

-9.79 mas/yr

PM Declination

-5.37 mas/yr

Galactic Cartesian (pc)

x = 0.274 · y = -0.716 · z = 0.642

Equatorial (J2000)

RA 290.92725° · Dec 39.91412°

Galactic ℓ, b

72.167° · 11.348°

Ecliptic λ, β

304.266° · 60.887°

HTM-20 index

1585861569

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