Confirmed Exoplanet Discovered 2016

Kepler-778 b

A super-earth orbiting the k-type orange Kepler-778, located approximately 3,059.9 light-years from Earth.

Key parameters at a glance

  • A radius of 1.68 Earth radii
  • A mass of 3.46 Earth masses
  • Surface gravity around 1.23 g
  • An orbital period of 3.756 days
  • Semi-major axis 0.0453 AU
  • Equilibrium temperature 977 K (704 °C)
  • Distance from Earth 3,059.89 light-years
  • Earth Similarity Index 0.295
  • Travel time at Voyager 1 speed 53,961,179 years
  • Almost certainly tidally locked to its host star given the close orbit

Kepler-778 b Planet Profile

Physical Specs

Radius
1.68 R⊕
Radius (Jupiter)
0.150 R♃
Mass
3.46 M⊕
Mass (Jupiter)
0.011 M♃
Density
4.01 g/cm³
Surface Gravity
1.23 g (Earth)

Classification

Planet Type

Super-Earth

ESI Score 0.295
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

#435of 1176

top 36.9%

This planet

1.68R⊕

Super-Earth median

1.60R⊕

Nearest-size peers

Metric Earth Kepler-778 b Jupiter
Radius (R⊕)1.001.6811.21
Mass (M⊕)1.003.46317.83
Density (g/cm³)5.514.011.33
Surface Gravity (g)1.001.232.53
Insolation (S⊕)1.00216.570.037

Star Catalogue Identifiers

TIC

TIC 158484518

Gaia DR2

Gaia DR2 2106046632461881856

Gaia DR3

Gaia DR3 2106046632461881856

System

Kepler-778

Percentile among Super-Earth cohort

Radius 1.680 R⊕ · percentile 62 / cohort 1176
Mass 3.460 M⊕ · percentile 56 / cohort 1176
Orbital period 3.76 d · percentile 29 / cohort 1164
Distance 938.17 pc · percentile 77 / cohort 1171
ESI 0.295 · percentile 36 / cohort 1176

Orbit & Habitability

Orbital Dynamics

Period
3.756 days
Semi-major axis
0.0453 AU
Eccentricity
0.000
Inclination
89.43 °

Year Length

A year here lasts approximately 3.76 Earth days (1.0% of a terrestrial year) on a nearly circular orbit at a mean orbital distance of 0.0453 AU.

Transit Fingerprint

Depth

0.042 %

Duration

2.297 h

Impact parameter b

0.127

Rp / R★

0.019985

Transit midpoint (BJD)

2,454,966.4329

Photometric dip

Transit produces a flux drop of 417 ppm lasting ≈ 2.30 h.

Extended Orbital Architecture

Planet / star radius ratio

0.019985

Semi-major axis / stellar radius

12.670

Impact parameter (b)

0.127

Transit mid-time (BJD)

2,454,966.4329

Angular separation (arcsec)

0.04830

Eq. Temperature

977K

(704 °C)

Insolation (S⊕)

216.57

Earth = 1.00

Earth Similarity (ESI)

0.295

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-778

Spectral Class

K-type orange

Effective Temperature

5,102 K — cooler than the Sun (5,778 K)

Estimated Age

5.25 Gyr — older than the Sun (4.6 Gyr)

Stellar Radius

0.770 R☉

Stellar Mass

0.810 M☉

Metallicity [Fe/H]

-0.09

Extended Stellar Properties

Surface gravity (log g)

4.580 dex

Stellar density

2.727 g/cm³

Metallicity ratio

[Fe/H]

Distance
938.17 parsec
Light-years 3,059.89 ly
V-band magnitude
15.96 mag
Voyager-speed travel 53,961,179 yr

Multi-band Host Photometry — 16 bands

9.417.217.16B15.96V15.75Gaia15.76Kepler15.18TESS16.43Sloan g15.70Sloan r15.48Sloan i15.38Sloan z14.35J13.85H13.79K13.82W113.96W212.34W39.39W4

Astrometric Data

Parallax

1.038 mas

Total Proper Motion

8.734 mas/yr

PM Right Ascension

6.22 mas/yr

PM Declination

-6.13 mas/yr

Galactic Cartesian (pc)

x = 0.215 · y = -0.683 · z = 0.698

Equatorial (J2000)

RA 287.47749° · Dec 44.23747°

Galactic ℓ, b

75.117° · 15.472°

Ecliptic λ, β

301.616° · 65.769°

HTM-20 index

1129038095

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