Key parameters at a glance

A radius of 4.38 Earth radii
A mass of 17.60 Earth masses
Surface gravity around 0.92 g
An orbital period of 14.801 days
Semi-major axis 0.1633 AU
Equilibrium temperature 1,912 K (1639 °C)
Distance from Earth 2,634.46 light-years
Earth Similarity Index 0.094
Travel time at Voyager 1 speed 46,458,640 years

Kepler-959 b Planet Profile

Physical Specs

Radius

4.38 R⊕

Radius (Jupiter)

0.391 R♃

Mass

17.60 M⊕

Mass (Jupiter)

0.056 M♃

Density

1.15 g/cm³

Surface Gravity

0.92 g (Earth)

Classification

Planet Type

Neptune-like

ESI Score 0.094

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

#478of 574

top 83.1%

This planet

4.38R⊕

Neptune-like median

6.39R⊕

Nearest-size peers

HAT-P-11 b 4.36 R⊕ HD 153557 c 4.36 R⊕ HD 106315 c 4.35 R⊕

Metric	Earth	Kepler-959 b	Jupiter
Radius (R⊕)	1.00	4.38	11.21
Mass (M⊕)	1.00	17.60	317.83
Density (g/cm³)	5.51	1.15	1.33
Surface Gravity (g)	1.00	0.92	2.53
Insolation (S⊕)	1.00	165.87	0.037

Star Catalogue Identifiers

TIC

TIC 137411481

Gaia DR2

Gaia DR2 2053574639053629952

Gaia DR3

Gaia DR3 2053574639053629952

System

Kepler-959

Percentile among Neptune-like cohort

Radius 4.380 R⊕ · percentile 17 / cohort 574

Mass 17.600 M⊕ · percentile 20 / cohort 574

Orbital period 14.80 d · percentile 45 / cohort 524

Distance 807.73 pc · percentile 67 / cohort 572

ESI 0.094 · percentile 2 / cohort 574

Orbit & Habitability

Orbital Dynamics

Period

14.801 days

Semi-major axis

0.1633 AU

Eccentricity

0.000

Inclination

88.88 °

Year Length

A year here lasts approximately 14.80 Earth days (4.1% of a terrestrial year) on a nearly circular orbit at a mean orbital distance of 0.1633 AU.

Transit Fingerprint

Depth

0.050 %

Duration

5.670 h

Impact parameter b

0.971

Rp / R★

0.020440

Transit midpoint (BJD)

2,454,965.8231

Photometric dip

Transit produces a flux drop of 501 ppm lasting ≈ 5.67 h.

Extended Orbital Architecture

Planet / star radius ratio

0.020440

Semi-major axis / stellar radius

20.274

Impact parameter (b)

0.971

Transit mid-time (BJD)

2,454,965.8231

Angular separation (arcsec)

0.20200

Eq. Temperature

1,912K

(1639 °C)

Insolation (S⊕)

165.87

Earth = 1.00

Earth Similarity (ESI)

0.094

0 = alien, 1 = Earth-identical

Inside the inner HZ boundary (too hot for liquid water) — the dayside is scorched.

Detection Signatures

Transit photometry

A transit dip has been observed from at least one telescope.

Transit timing variations

Gravitational interactions from neighbours have been detected.

Discovery Paper

Primary reference

Morton et al. 2016

Instrument

Kepler CCD Array

Publication

2016-05

Observation locale

Space

Discovery cohort

Planets confirmed in 2016 at Kepler (12 shown).

Kepler-1512 b · Rocky Terrestrial Kepler-1410 b · Super-Earth Kepler-560 b · Super-Earth Kepler-1389 b · Super-Earth Kepler-1450 b · Super-Earth Kepler-1544 b · Super-Earth Kepler-1459 b · Super-Earth Kepler-1638 b · Super-Earth Kepler-737 b · Super-Earth Kepler-1185 b · Super-Earth Kepler-1178 b · Rocky Terrestrial Kepler-1040 b · Sub-Neptune

Host System: Kepler-959

Spectral Class

F-type yellow-white

Effective Temperature

7,005 K — hotter than the Sun (5,778 K)

Estimated Age

1.35 Gyr — younger than the Sun (4.6 Gyr)

Stellar Radius

2.010 R☉

Stellar Mass

1.600 M☉

Metallicity [Fe/H]

0.02

Extended Stellar Properties

Surface gravity (log g)

4.040 dex

Stellar density

0.456 g/cm³

Systemic radial velocity

15.54 km/s

Metallicity ratio

[Fe/H]

Distance

807.73 parsec

Light-years 2,634.46 ly

V-band magnitude

12.61 mag

Voyager-speed travel 46,458,640 yr

Multi-band Host Photometry — 16 bands

Astrometric Data

Parallax

1.210 mas

Total Proper Motion

0.965 mas/yr

PM Right Ascension

0.93 mas/yr

PM Declination

0.27 mas/yr

Galactic Cartesian (pc)

x = 0.286 · y = -0.701 · z = 0.654

Equatorial (J2000)

RA 292.17119° · Dec 40.81138°

Galactic ℓ, b

73.414° · 10.896°

Ecliptic λ, β

306.703° · 61.455°

HTM-20 index

1839776761