Confirmed Exoplanet Discovered 2021

LHS 1678 c

A rocky terrestrial orbiting the m-type red dwarf LHS 1678, located approximately 64.8 light-years from Earth.

Key parameters at a glance

  • A radius of 0.94 Earth radii
  • A mass of 1.40 Earth masses
  • Surface gravity around 1.58 g
  • An orbital period of 3.694 days
  • Semi-major axis 0.0327 AU
  • Equilibrium temperature 511 K (238 °C)
  • Distance from Earth 64.83 light-years
  • Earth Similarity Index 0.560
  • Travel time at Voyager 1 speed 1,143,347 years
  • Almost certainly tidally locked to its host star given the close orbit

Context from the literature

LHS 1678 (TOI-696) is an astrometric binary star system, located about 65 light-years from the Earth in the constellation Caelum. It is made up of a red dwarf and a companion star whose nature is still uncertain, but is likely to be a brown dwarf. The red dwarf star is known to host three small, close-in exoplanets.

Excerpted from Wikipedia · full article

2 siblings around LHS 1678

LHS 1678 c shares its host star with 2 other confirmed planets. Side-by-side measurements below.

Planet Type Radius (R⊕) Mass (M⊕) Period (d) Eq. T (K) Year
LHS 1678 b Rocky Terrestrial 0.69 0.35 0.860 830 2021
LHS 1678 c this Rocky Terrestrial 0.94 1.40 3.694 511 2021
LHS 1678 d Rocky Terrestrial 0.98 0.91 4.965 463 2024

LHS 1678 c Planet Profile

Physical Specs

Radius
0.94 R⊕
Radius (Jupiter)
0.084 R♃
Mass
1.40 M⊕
Mass (Jupiter)
0.004 M♃
Density
10.60 g/cm³
Surface Gravity
1.58 g (Earth)

Classification

Planet Type

Rocky Terrestrial

ESI Score 0.560
HZ Position Inner
Controversial No

Discovery

Year 2021
Method Transit
Facility Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS)
Telescope 0.1 m TESS Telescope

Size rank in cohort

Rank by radius

#383of 570

top 67.0%

This planet

0.94R⊕

Rocky Terrestrial median

1.01R⊕

Nearest-size peers

Metric Earth LHS 1678 c Jupiter
Radius (R⊕)1.000.9411.21
Mass (M⊕)1.001.40317.83
Density (g/cm³)5.5110.601.33
Surface Gravity (g)1.001.582.53
Insolation (S⊕)1.0013.500.037

Alternative Mass Estimates

Method Value Interpretation
Best measured mass 1.400 M⊕ Direct mass measurement (not derived).

Star Catalogue Identifiers

TIC

TIC 77156829

Gaia DR2

Gaia DR2 4864160624337973248

Gaia DR3

Gaia DR3 4864160624337973248

System

LHS 1678

Percentile among Rocky Terrestrial cohort

Radius 0.941 R⊕ · percentile 33 / cohort 570
Mass 1.400 M⊕ · percentile 56 / cohort 570
Orbital period 3.69 d · percentile 40 / cohort 567
Distance 19.88 pc · percentile 9 / cohort 566
ESI 0.560 · percentile 75 / cohort 570

Orbit & Habitability

Orbital Dynamics

Period
3.694 days
Semi-major axis
0.0327 AU
Eccentricity
0.039
Inclination
88.82 °

Year Length

A year here lasts approximately 3.69 Earth days (1.0% of a terrestrial year) on a nearly circular orbit at a mean orbital distance of 0.0327 AU.

Transit Fingerprint

Depth

0.083 %

Duration

1.230 h

Impact parameter b

0.440

Rp / R★

0.026200

Transit midpoint (BJD)

2,458,998.4561

Photometric dip

Transit produces a flux drop of 833 ppm lasting ≈ 1.23 h.

Extended Orbital Architecture

Planet / star radius ratio

0.026200

Semi-major axis / stellar radius

21.360

Impact parameter (b)

0.440

Transit mid-time (BJD)

2,458,998.4561

Long. of periastron (ω)

23.00°

Angular separation (arcsec)

1.65000

Eq. Temperature

511K

(238 °C)

Insolation (S⊕)

13.50

Earth = 1.00

Earth Similarity (ESI)

0.560

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

Silverstein et al. 2022

Instrument

TESS CCD Array

Publication

2022-04

Observation locale

Space

Host System: LHS 1678

Spectral Class

M-type red dwarf

Effective Temperature

3,490 K — cooler than the Sun (5,778 K)

Estimated Age

7.00 Gyr — older than the Sun (4.6 Gyr)

Stellar Radius

0.329 R☉

Stellar Mass

0.345 M☉

Metallicity [Fe/H]

Extended Stellar Properties

Surface gravity (log g)

4.890 dex

Stellar density

13.900 g/cm³

Systemic radial velocity

11.47 km/s

Rotational v·sin i

0.53 km/s

Rotation period

64.00 days

Activity index (log R'HK)

-6.087

Distance
19.88 parsec
Light-years 64.83 ly
V-band magnitude
12.60 mag
Voyager-speed travel 1,143,347 yr

Multi-band Host Photometry — 6 bands

8.312.612.60V11.54Gaia10.43TESS9.02J8.50H8.26K

Astrometric Data

Parallax

50.277 mas

Total Proper Motion

996.945 mas/yr

PM Right Ascension

239.41 mas/yr

PM Declination

-967.77 mas/yr

Galactic Cartesian (pc)

x = 0.286 · y = 0.713 · z = -0.640

Equatorial (J2000)

RA 68.17899° · Dec -39.79087°

Galactic ℓ, b

243.298° · -42.917°

Ecliptic λ, β

54.461° · -60.566°

HTM-20 index

1504924265

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