Confirmed Exoplanet Discovered 2016

Kepler-973 b

A super-earth orbiting the g-type yellow (sun-like) Kepler-973, located approximately 1,071.5 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 49.608 days
  • Semi-major axis 0.2489 AU
  • Equilibrium temperature 402 K (129 °C)
  • Distance from Earth 1,071.49 light-years
  • Earth Similarity Index 0.653
  • Travel time at Voyager 1 speed 18,895,684 years

Kepler-973 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 0.653
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-973 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⊕)1.007.890.037

Star Catalogue Identifiers

TIC

TIC 267747398

Gaia DR2

Gaia DR2 2130024026126714880

Gaia DR3

Gaia DR3 2130024026126714880

System

Kepler-973

Percentile among Super-Earth cohort

Radius 1.960 R⊕ · percentile 95 / cohort 1176
Mass 4.500 M⊕ · percentile 86 / cohort 1176
Orbital period 49.61 d · percentile 96 / cohort 1164
Distance 328.52 pc · percentile 35 / cohort 1171
ESI 0.653 · percentile 83 / cohort 1176

Orbit & Habitability

Orbital Dynamics

Period
49.608 days
Semi-major axis
0.2489 AU
Eccentricity
0.000
Inclination
89.50 °

Year Length

A year here lasts approximately 49.61 Earth days (13.6% of a terrestrial year) on a nearly circular orbit at a mean orbital distance of 0.2489 AU.

Transit Fingerprint

Depth

0.063 %

Duration

2.842 h

Impact parameter b

0.004

Rp / R★

0.022756

Transit midpoint (BJD)

2,454,971.4142

Photometric dip

Transit produces a flux drop of 627 ppm lasting ≈ 2.84 h.

Extended Orbital Architecture

Planet / star radius ratio

0.022756

Semi-major axis / stellar radius

136.370

Impact parameter (b)

0.004

Transit mid-time (BJD)

2,454,971.4142

Angular separation (arcsec)

0.75800

Eq. Temperature

402K

(129 °C)

Insolation (S⊕)

7.89

Earth = 1.00

Earth Similarity (ESI)

0.653

0 = alien, 1 = Earth-identical

Inside the inner HZ boundary (too hot for liquid water) — the surface is too hot to retain surface water.

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

Host System: Kepler-973

Spectral Class

G-type yellow (Sun-like)

Effective Temperature

5,213 K — cooler than the Sun (5,778 K)

Estimated Age

2.29 Gyr — younger than the Sun (4.6 Gyr)

Stellar Radius

0.780 R☉

Stellar Mass

0.860 M☉

Metallicity [Fe/H]

-0.06

Extended Stellar Properties

Surface gravity (log g)

4.580 dex

Stellar density

1.290 g/cm³

Systemic radial velocity

-22.84 km/s

Metallicity ratio

[Fe/H]

Distance
328.52 parsec
Light-years 1,071.49 ly
V-band magnitude
13.48 mag
Voyager-speed travel 18,895,684 yr

Multi-band Host Photometry — 16 bands

9.614.314.28B13.48V13.23Gaia13.22Kepler12.67TESS13.86Sloan g13.19Sloan r12.94Sloan i12.87Sloan z11.85J11.43H11.30K11.24W111.28W211.10W39.56W4

Astrometric Data

Parallax

3.016 mas

Total Proper Motion

16.068 mas/yr

PM Right Ascension

5.42 mas/yr

PM Declination

-15.13 mas/yr

Galactic Cartesian (pc)

x = 0.222 · y = -0.604 · z = 0.765

Equatorial (J2000)

RA 290.16532° · Dec 49.92381°

Galactic ℓ, b

81.296° · 16.025°

Ecliptic λ, β

311.582° · 70.466°

HTM-20 index

1005504757

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