NASA (Exoplanet Catalog artwork)Kepler-10b
Kepler's first rocky planet, denser than Earth and hotter than lava
Overview
Kepler-10b is the first confirmed terrestrial planet to have been discovered outside the Solar System by the Kepler Space Telescope. Discovered after several months of data collection during the course of the NASA-directed Kepler Mission, which aims to discover Earth-like planets crossing in front of their host stars, the planet's discovery was announced on January 10, 2011. Kepler-10b has a mass of 3.72±0.42 Earth masses and a radius of 1.47 Earth radii. However, it lies extremely close to its star, Kepler-10, and as a result is too hot to support life as we know it. Its existence was confirmed using measurements from the W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii.
Source: Wikipedia
NASA: Kepler-10 b is a super Earth exoplanet that orbits a G-type star. Its mass is 3.24 Earths, it takes 0.8 days to complete one orbit of its star, and is 0.01685 AU from its star. Its discovery was announced in 2011.
Why it matters
- Announced in January 2011 as the first unquestionably rocky planet from the Kepler mission.
- Orbits its star in less than 20 hours; dayside temperature around 1,800 K.
- About 1.5 Earth radii with an iron-rich composition similar to Mercury's.
NASA puts it this way: “Kepler-10 b is a super Earth exoplanet that orbits a G-type star. Its mass is 3.26 Earths, it takes 0.8 days to complete one orbit of its star, and is 0.01685 AU from its star. Its discovery was announced in 2011.”
Discovery & system
- Discovered
- 2011 · Transit · Kepler
- Discovery paper
- Batalha et al. 2011
- Discoverers
- Kepler Space Telescope
- Host star
- Kepler-10 · 5,708 K · 0.91 M☉
- System
- 3 known planets
- Siblings
- Kepler-10 c, Kepler-10 d
The system
| World | Period | Distance | Radius | Mass | Temp. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kepler-10 b | 20.1 h | 0.017 AU | 1.47 R⊕ | 3.24 M⊕ | 2,188 K |
| Kepler-10 c | 45.3 d | 0.241 AU | 2.36 R⊕ | 11.29 M⊕ | 579 K |
| Kepler-10 d | 151.1 d | 0.538 AU | 3.49 R⊕ | ≥ 12 M⊕ | 387 K |
By the numbers
- Radius
- 1.47 R⊕9,365 km
- Mass
- 3.24 M⊕19.35 ×10²⁴ kg
- Orbital period
- 20.1 h
- Distance from star
- 0.017 AU2.52 million km
- Eccentricity
- 0nearly circular
- Equilibrium temp.
- 2,188 K1,915 °C
- Starlight received
- 3,742 × Earth
- Distance from Earth
- 605 ly185.5 pc
- Density
- 5.54 g/cm³1.01 × Earth
Sources
Image: NASA (Exoplanet Catalog artwork) · NASA media: generally free of copyright · image page
Text: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Taglines and highlights are editorial.