Confirmed Exoplanet Discovered 2016

Kepler-878 b

A super-earth orbiting the k-type orange Kepler-878, located approximately 2,581.9 light-years from Earth.

Key parameters at a glance

  • A radius of 1.93 Earth radii
  • A mass of 4.38 Earth masses
  • Surface gravity around 1.18 g
  • An orbital period of 25.942 days
  • Semi-major axis 0.1650 AU
  • Equilibrium temperature 501 K (228 °C)
  • Distance from Earth 2,581.93 light-years
  • Earth Similarity Index 0.545
  • Travel time at Voyager 1 speed 45,532,376 years
  • Almost certainly tidally locked to its host star given the close orbit

Kepler-878 b Planet Profile

Physical Specs

Radius
1.93 R⊕
Radius (Jupiter)
0.172 R♃
Mass
4.38 M⊕
Mass (Jupiter)
0.014 M♃
Density
3.35 g/cm³
Surface Gravity
1.18 g (Earth)

Classification

Planet Type

Super-Earth

ESI Score 0.545
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

#85of 1176

top 7.1%

This planet

1.93R⊕

Super-Earth median

1.60R⊕

Nearest-size peers

Metric Earth Kepler-878 b Jupiter
Radius (R⊕)1.001.9311.21
Mass (M⊕)1.004.38317.83
Density (g/cm³)5.513.351.33
Surface Gravity (g)1.001.182.53
Insolation (S⊕)1.0027.010.037

Star Catalogue Identifiers

TIC

TIC 164892142

Gaia DR2

Gaia DR2 2107313098057987712

Gaia DR3

Gaia DR3 2107313098057987712

System

Kepler-878

Percentile among Super-Earth cohort

Radius 1.930 R⊕ · percentile 92 / cohort 1176
Mass 4.380 M⊕ · percentile 84 / cohort 1176
Orbital period 25.94 d · percentile 90 / cohort 1164
Distance 791.63 pc · percentile 67 / cohort 1171
ESI 0.545 · percentile 77 / cohort 1176

Orbit & Habitability

Orbital Dynamics

Period
25.942 days
Semi-major axis
0.1650 AU
Eccentricity
0.000
Inclination
89.20 °

Year Length

A year here lasts approximately 25.94 Earth days (7.1% of a terrestrial year) on a nearly circular orbit at a mean orbital distance of 0.1650 AU.

Transit Fingerprint

Depth

0.057 %

Duration

4.044 h

Impact parameter b

0.128

Rp / R★

0.022504

Transit midpoint (BJD)

2,454,989.1860

Photometric dip

Transit produces a flux drop of 570 ppm lasting ≈ 4.04 h.

Extended Orbital Architecture

Planet / star radius ratio

0.022504

Semi-major axis / stellar radius

49.720

Impact parameter (b)

0.128

Transit mid-time (BJD)

2,454,989.1860

Angular separation (arcsec)

0.20800

Eq. Temperature

501K

(228 °C)

Insolation (S⊕)

27.01

Earth = 1.00

Earth Similarity (ESI)

0.545

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-878

Spectral Class

K-type orange

Effective Temperature

5,044 K — cooler than the Sun (5,778 K)

Estimated Age

4.57 Gyr — younger than the Sun (4.6 Gyr)

Stellar Radius

0.770 R☉

Stellar Mass

0.810 M☉

Metallicity [Fe/H]

-0.03

Extended Stellar Properties

Surface gravity (log g)

4.580 dex

Stellar density

3.454 g/cm³

Metallicity ratio

[Fe/H]

Distance
791.63 parsec
Light-years 2,581.93 ly
V-band magnitude
14.97 mag
Voyager-speed travel 45,532,376 yr

Multi-band Host Photometry — 16 bands

9.616.016.01B14.97V14.79Gaia14.82Kepler14.20TESS15.52Sloan g14.77Sloan r14.52Sloan i14.38Sloan z13.36J12.91H12.79K12.75W112.78W212.28W39.56W4

Astrometric Data

Parallax

1.237 mas

Total Proper Motion

10.039 mas/yr

PM Right Ascension

5.99 mas/yr

PM Declination

8.06 mas/yr

Galactic Cartesian (pc)

x = 0.181 · y = -0.663 · z = 0.727

Equatorial (J2000)

RA 285.29626° · Dec 46.60345°

Galactic ℓ, b

76.808° · 17.778°

Ecliptic λ, β

299.601° · 68.476°

HTM-20 index

-1421996221

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