Confirmed Exoplanet Discovered 2016

Kepler-737 b

A super-earth orbiting the k-type orange Kepler-737, located approximately 669.0 light-years from Earth.

Key parameters at a glance

  • A radius of 1.96 Earth radii
  • A mass of 4.50 Earth masses
  • Surface gravity around 1.17 g
  • An orbital period of 28.599 days
  • Semi-major axis 0.1422 AU
  • Equilibrium temperature 298 K (25 °C)
  • Distance from Earth 669.00 light-years
  • Earth Similarity Index 0.820
  • Travel time at Voyager 1 speed 11,797,897 years
  • Almost certainly tidally locked to its host star given the close orbit

Context from the literature

Kepler-737b is a super-Earth exoplanet 669 light years away. There is a chance it could be on the inner edge of the habitable zone.

Excerpted from Wikipedia · full article

Kepler-737 b Planet Profile

Physical Specs

Radius
1.96 R⊕
Radius (Jupiter)
0.175 R♃
Mass
4.50 M⊕
Mass (Jupiter)
0.014 M♃
Density
3.28 g/cm³
Surface Gravity
1.17 g (Earth)

Classification

Planet Type

Super-Earth

ESI Score 0.820
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

#49of 1176

top 4.1%

This planet

1.96R⊕

Super-Earth median

1.60R⊕

Nearest-size peers

Metric Earth Kepler-737 b Jupiter
Radius (R⊕)1.001.9611.21
Mass (M⊕)1.004.50317.83
Density (g/cm³)5.513.281.33
Surface Gravity (g)1.001.172.53
Insolation (S⊕)1.002.300.037

Star Catalogue Identifiers

TIC

TIC 63068329

Gaia DR2

Gaia DR2 2126820324123177472

Gaia DR3

Gaia DR3 2126820324123177472

System

Kepler-737

Percentile among Super-Earth cohort

Radius 1.960 R⊕ · percentile 95 / cohort 1176
Mass 4.500 M⊕ · percentile 86 / cohort 1176
Orbital period 28.60 d · percentile 91 / cohort 1164
Distance 205.12 pc · percentile 25 / cohort 1171
ESI 0.820 · percentile 91 / cohort 1176

Orbit & Habitability

Orbital Dynamics

Period
28.599 days
Semi-major axis
0.1422 AU
Eccentricity
0.000
Inclination
89.99 °

Year Length

A year here lasts approximately 28.60 Earth days (7.8% of a terrestrial year) on a nearly circular orbit at a mean orbital distance of 0.1422 AU.

Transit Fingerprint

Depth

0.159 %

Duration

3.663 h

Impact parameter b

0.894

Rp / R★

0.037451

Transit midpoint (BJD)

2,455,022.9258

Photometric dip

Transit produces a flux drop of 1,585 ppm lasting ≈ 3.66 h.

Extended Orbital Architecture

Planet / star radius ratio

0.037451

Semi-major axis / stellar radius

61.920

Impact parameter (b)

0.894

Transit mid-time (BJD)

2,455,022.9258

Angular separation (arcsec)

0.69300

Eq. Temperature

298K

(25 °C)

Insolation (S⊕)

2.30

Earth = 1.00

Earth Similarity (ESI)

0.820

0 = alien, 1 = Earth-identical

Inside the inner HZ boundary (too hot for liquid water) — liquid water is physically possible with adequate atmospheric pressure. 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-737

Spectral Class

K-type orange

Effective Temperature

3,813 K — cooler than the Sun (5,778 K)

Estimated Age

3.89 Gyr — younger than the Sun (4.6 Gyr)

Stellar Radius

0.480 R☉

Stellar Mass

0.510 M☉

Metallicity [Fe/H]

-0.24

Extended Stellar Properties

Surface gravity (log g)

4.770 dex

Stellar density

5.239 g/cm³

Metallicity ratio

[Fe/H]

Distance
205.12 parsec
Light-years 669.00 ly
V-band magnitude
15.97 mag
Voyager-speed travel 11,797,897 yr

Multi-band Host Photometry — 16 bands

9.517.917.86B15.97V15.15Gaia15.19Kepler14.15TESS16.65Sloan g15.26Sloan r14.56Sloan i14.11Sloan z12.91J12.29H12.10K11.97W111.92W211.67W39.49W4

Astrometric Data

Parallax

4.847 mas

Total Proper Motion

28.240 mas/yr

PM Right Ascension

20.06 mas/yr

PM Declination

-19.88 mas/yr

Galactic Cartesian (pc)

x = 0.257 · y = -0.640 · z = 0.725

Equatorial (J2000)

RA 291.86298° · Dec 46.42916°

Galactic ℓ, b

78.484° · 13.555°

Ecliptic λ, β

310.669° · 66.807°

HTM-20 index

-859287543

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