Confirmed Exoplanet Discovered 2016

Kepler-942 b

A sub-neptune orbiting the k-type orange Kepler-942, located approximately 705.7 light-years from Earth.

Key parameters at a glance

  • A radius of 2.13 Earth radii
  • A mass of 5.18 Earth masses
  • Surface gravity around 1.14 g
  • An orbital period of 44.964 days
  • Semi-major axis 0.2274 AU
  • Equilibrium temperature 379 K (106 °C)
  • Distance from Earth 705.65 light-years
  • Earth Similarity Index 0.665
  • Travel time at Voyager 1 speed 12,444,164 years
  • Almost certainly tidally locked to its host star given the close orbit

Kepler-942 b Planet Profile

Physical Specs

Radius
2.13 R⊕
Radius (Jupiter)
0.190 R♃
Mass
5.18 M⊕
Mass (Jupiter)
0.016 M♃
Density
2.95 g/cm³
Surface Gravity
1.14 g (Earth)

Classification

Planet Type

Sub-Neptune

ESI Score 0.665
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

#1765of 1978

top 89.2%

This planet

2.13R⊕

Sub-Neptune median

2.71R⊕

Nearest-size peers

Metric Earth Kepler-942 b Jupiter
Radius (R⊕)1.002.1311.21
Mass (M⊕)1.005.18317.83
Density (g/cm³)5.512.951.33
Surface Gravity (g)1.001.142.53
Insolation (S⊕)1.004.960.037

Star Catalogue Identifiers

TIC

TIC 271349932

Gaia DR2

Gaia DR2 2078316296378319488

Gaia DR3

Gaia DR3 2078316296378319488

System

Kepler-942

Percentile among Sub-Neptune cohort

Radius 2.130 R⊕ · percentile 10 / cohort 1978
Mass 5.180 M⊕ · percentile 11 / cohort 1978
Orbital period 44.96 d · percentile 83 / cohort 1946
Distance 216.35 pc · percentile 30 / cohort 1975
ESI 0.665 · percentile 89 / cohort 1978

Orbit & Habitability

Orbital Dynamics

Period
44.964 days
Semi-major axis
0.2274 AU
Eccentricity
0.000
Inclination
89.91 °

Year Length

A year here lasts approximately 44.96 Earth days (12.3% of a terrestrial year) on a nearly circular orbit at a mean orbital distance of 0.2274 AU.

Transit Fingerprint

Depth

0.081 %

Duration

5.041 h

Impact parameter b

0.501

Rp / R★

0.026085

Transit midpoint (BJD)

2,454,977.5588

Photometric dip

Transit produces a flux drop of 812 ppm lasting ≈ 5.04 h.

Extended Orbital Architecture

Planet / star radius ratio

0.026085

Semi-major axis / stellar radius

70.290

Impact parameter (b)

0.501

Transit mid-time (BJD)

2,454,977.5588

Angular separation (arcsec)

1.05000

Eq. Temperature

379K

(106 °C)

Insolation (S⊕)

4.96

Earth = 1.00

Earth Similarity (ESI)

0.665

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-942

Spectral Class

K-type orange

Effective Temperature

4,861 K — cooler than the Sun (5,778 K)

Estimated Age

4.17 Gyr — younger than the Sun (4.6 Gyr)

Stellar Radius

0.750 R☉

Stellar Mass

0.810 M☉

Metallicity [Fe/H]

0.09

Extended Stellar Properties

Surface gravity (log g)

4.590 dex

Stellar density

1.870 g/cm³

Systemic radial velocity

-36.01 km/s

Metallicity ratio

[Fe/H]

Distance
216.35 parsec
Light-years 705.65 ly
V-band magnitude
13.25 mag
Voyager-speed travel 12,444,164 yr

Multi-band Host Photometry — 16 bands

9.214.614.57B13.25V13.07Gaia13.05Kepler12.41TESS13.92Sloan g12.98Sloan r12.68Sloan i12.52Sloan z11.47J10.94H10.84K10.78W110.87W210.71W39.20W4

Astrometric Data

Parallax

4.593 mas

Total Proper Motion

25.165 mas/yr

PM Right Ascension

-1.20 mas/yr

PM Declination

25.14 mas/yr

Galactic Cartesian (pc)

x = 0.303 · y = -0.651 · z = 0.697

Equatorial (J2000)

RA 294.95508° · Dec 44.14995°

Galactic ℓ, b

77.391° · 10.591°

Ecliptic λ, β

313.427° · 63.874°

HTM-20 index

-1320980599

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