Kepler-6

Last updated

Kepler-6
Observation data
Epoch J2000       Equinox J2000
Constellation Cygnus
Right ascension 19h 47m 20.9380s [1]
Declination +48° 14 23.759 [1]
Apparent magnitude  (V)13.8
Characteristics
Apparent magnitude  (J)12.001±0.021 [2]
Apparent magnitude  (H)11.706±0.019 [2]
Apparent magnitude  (K)11.634±0.019 [2]
Astrometry
Proper motion (μ)RA: 0.935(11)  mas/yr [1]
Dec.: 8.458(12)  mas/yr [1]
Parallax (π)1.7108 ± 0.0102  mas [1]
Distance 1,910 ± 10  ly
(585 ± 3  pc)
Details
Mass 1.209  M
Radius 1.391  R
Temperature 5647  K
Age 3.8  Gyr
Other designations
KOI-17, KIC  10874614, 2MASS J19472094+4814238 [3]
Database references
SIMBAD data
KIC data

Kepler-6 is a G-type star situated in the constellation Cygnus. The star lies within the field of view of the Kepler Mission, which discovered it as part of a NASA-led mission to discover Earth-like planets. The star, which is slightly larger, more metal-rich, slightly cooler, and more massive than the Sun, is orbited by at least one extrasolar planet, a Jupiter-sized planet named Kepler-6b that orbits closely to its star.

Contents

Kepler-6 Kepler-6-Sun comparison.png
Kepler-6

Nomenclature and history

Kepler-6 was named for the Kepler Mission, a NASA project launched in 2009 that aims to discover Earth-like planets that transit, or cross in front of, their home stars with respect to Earth. [4] Unlike stars like the Sun or Sirius, Kepler-6 does not have a common and colloquial name. The discovery of Kepler-6b was announced by the Kepler team on January 4, 2010 [5] at the 215th meeting of the American Astronomical Society along with planets around Kepler-4, Kepler-5, Kepler-7, and Kepler-8. [6] It was the third planet to be discovered by the Kepler spacecraft; the first three planets to be verified by data from Kepler had been previously discovered. These three planets were used to test the accuracy of Kepler's measurements. [7]

The discovery of Kepler-6 was confirmed by follow-up observations made using the Hobby–Eberly and Smith telescopes in Texas; the Keck 1 telescope in Hawaii; the Hale and Shane telescopes in southern California; the WIYN, MMT, and Tillinghast telescopes in Arizona; and the Nordic Optical Telescope in the Canary Islands. [8]

Characteristics

Kepler-6 is a star that is approximately 1.209 Msun, or some five-fourths the mass of the Sun. It is also wider than the sun, with a radius of 1.391 Rsun, or seven-fifths of that of the Sun. The star is approximately 3.8 billion years old, and has an effective temperature of 5647 K (9,705 °F). [9] In comparison, the Sun has a slightly warmer temperature of 5778 K. [10] Kepler-6 has a metallicity of [Fe/H] = +0.34, making it 2.2 times more metallic than the Sun. [7] On average, metal-rich stars tend to be more likely to have planets and planetary systems. [11]

The star, as seen from Earth, has an apparent magnitude of 13.8. [7] It is not visible with the naked eye. In comparison, Pluto's apparent magnitude at its brightest is slightly brighter, at 13.65. [12]

Planetary system

A picture showing the relative sizes of the first five planets discovered by Kepler. Kepler-6b is just larger than Jupiter, represented in green. Kepler first five exoplanet size.jpg
A picture showing the relative sizes of the first five planets discovered by Kepler. Kepler-6b is just larger than Jupiter, represented in green.

Kepler-6 has one confirmed extrasolar planet; it is a gas giant named Kepler-6b. [13] The planet is approximately .669 MJ, or some two-thirds the mass of planet Jupiter. It is also slightly more diffuse than Jupiter, with a radius of approximately 1.323 RJ. Kepler-6b orbits at an average distance of .0456 AU from its star, and completes an orbit every 3.234 days. The eccentricity of the planet's orbit is assumed to be 0, which is that of a circular orbit. [9]

The Kepler-6 planetary system [7]
Companion
(in order from star)
Mass Semimajor axis
(AU)
Orbital period
(days)
Eccentricity Inclination Radius
b 0.669  MJ 0.045673.234701.323  RJ

See also

Related Research Articles

HD 154672 b is an extrasolar planet located approximately 210 light-years away in the constellation of Ara, orbiting the metal-rich and aged star HD 154672. This planet has a minimum mass five times that of Jupiter and orbits at about 60% the distance between the Earth to the Sun. Its orbit is very elliptical, which causes temperatures on the planet to vary significantly as it proceeds along its orbit. This planet was discovered in Las Campanas Observatory on September 5, 2008 using the radial velocity method. Along with HD 205739 b, the planets were the first to be discovered by the N2K Consortium using the Magellan Telescopes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kepler-7b</span> Hot Jupiter orbiting Kepler-7

Kepler-7b is one of the first five exoplanets to be confirmed by NASA's Kepler spacecraft, and was confirmed in the first 33.5 days of Kepler's science operations. It orbits a star slightly hotter and significantly larger than the Sun that is expected to soon reach the end of the main sequence. Kepler-7b is a hot Jupiter that is about half the mass of Jupiter, but is nearly 1.5 times its size; at the time of its discovery, Kepler-7b was the second most diffuse planet known, surpassed only by WASP-17b. It orbits its host star every five days at a distance of approximately 0,06 AU. Kepler-7b was announced at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society on January 4, 2010. It is the first extrasolar planet to have a crude map of cloud coverage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kepler-4b</span> Extrasolar planet in the constellation Draco

Kepler-4b, initially known as KOI 7.01, is an extrasolar planet first detected as a transit by the Kepler spacecraft. Its radius and mass are similar to that of Neptune; however, due to its proximity to its host star, it is substantially hotter than any planet in the Solar System. The planet's discovery was announced on January 4, 2010, in Washington, D.C., along with four other planets that were initially detected by the Kepler spacecraft and subsequently confirmed by telescopes at the W.M. Keck Observatory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kepler-5b</span> Extrasolar planet

Kepler-5b is one of the first five planets discovered by NASA's Kepler spacecraft. It is a hot Jupiter that orbits a subgiant star that is more massive, larger, and more diffuse than the Sun is. Kepler-5 was first flagged as the location of a possibly transiting planet, and was reclassified as a Kepler Object of Interest until follow-up observations confirmed the planet's existence and many of its characteristics. The planet's discovery was announced at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society on January 4, 2010. The planet has approximately twice the mass of Jupiter, and is about 1.5 times larger. It is also fifteen times hotter than Jupiter. Kepler-5b orbits Kepler-5 every 3.5 days at a distance of approximately 0.051 AU.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kepler-6b</span> Extrasolar planet orbiting Kepler-6

Kepler-6b is an extrasolar planet in the orbit of the unusually metal-rich Kepler-6, a star in the field of view of the NASA-operated Kepler spacecraft, which searches for planets that cross directly in front of, or transit, their host stars. It was the third planet to be discovered by Kepler. Kepler-6 orbits its host star every three days from a distance of .046 AU. Its proximity to Kepler-6 inflated the planet, about two-thirds the mass of Jupiter, to slightly larger than Jupiter's size and greatly heated its atmosphere.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kepler-8b</span> Extrasolar planet

Kepler-8b is the fifth of the first five exoplanets discovered by NASA's Kepler spacecraft, which aims to discover planets in a region of the sky between the constellations Lyra and Cygnus that transit their host stars. The planet is the hottest of the five. Kepler-8b was the only planet discovered in Kepler-8's orbit, and is larger than Jupiter. It orbits its host star every 3.5 days. The planet also demonstrates the Rossiter–McLaughlin effect, where the planet's orbit affects the redshifting of the spectrum of the host star. Kepler-8b was announced to the public on January 4, 2010 at a conference in Washington, D.C. after radial velocity measurements conducted at the W.M. Keck Observatory confirmed its detection by Kepler.

Kepler-4 is a sunlike star located about 1626 light-years away in the constellation Draco. It is in the field of view of the Kepler Mission, a NASA operation purposed with finding Earth-like planets. Kepler-4b, a Neptune-sized planet that orbits extremely close to its star, was discovered in its orbit and made public by the Kepler team on January 4, 2010. Kepler-4b was the first discovery by the Kepler satellite, and its confirmation helped to demonstrate the spacecraft's effectiveness.

Kepler-5 is a star located in the constellation Cygnus in the field of view of the Kepler Mission, a NASA project aimed at detecting planets in transit of, or passing in front of, their host stars as seen from Earth. One closely-orbiting, Jupiter-like planet, named Kepler-5b, has been detected around Kepler-5. Kepler-5's planet was one of the first five planets to be discovered by the Kepler spacecraft; its discovery was announced on January 4, 2010 at the 215th meeting of the American Astronomical Society after being verified by a variety of observatories. Kepler-5 is larger and more massive than the Sun, but has a similar metallicity, a major factor in planet formation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kepler-7</span> G-type star located in the constellation Lyra

Kepler-7 is a star located in the constellation Lyra in the field of view of the Kepler Mission, a NASA operation in search of Earth-like planets. It is home to the fourth of the first five planets that Kepler discovered; this planet, a Jupiter-size gas giant named Kepler-7b, is as light as styrofoam. The star itself is more massive than the Sun, and is nearly twice the Sun's radius. It is also slightly metal-rich, a major factor in the formation of planetary systems. Kepler-7's planet was presented on January 4, 2010 at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society.

Kepler-8 is a star located in the constellation Lyra in the field of view of the Kepler Mission, a NASA-led operation tasked with discovering terrestrial planets. The star, which is slightly hotter, larger, and more massive than the Sun, has one gas giant in its orbit, Kepler-8b. This gas giant is larger than Jupiter, but is less massive, and thus more diffuse. The planet's discovery was announced to the public on January 4, 2010 along with four other planets. As the fifth confirmed planetary system verified by Kepler, it helped demonstrate the capabilities of the Kepler spacecraft.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Discoveries of exoplanets</span> Detecting planets located outside the Solar System

An exoplanet is a planet located outside the Solar System. The first evidence of an exoplanet was noted as early as 1917, but was not recognized as such until 2016; no planet discovery has yet come from that evidence. What turned out to be the first detection of an exoplanet was published among a list of possible candidates in 1988, though not confirmed until 2003. The first confirmed detection came in 1992, with the discovery of terrestrial-mass planets orbiting the pulsar PSR B1257+12. The first confirmation of an exoplanet orbiting a main-sequence star was made in 1995, when a giant planet was found in a four-day orbit around the nearby star 51 Pegasi. Some exoplanets have been imaged directly by telescopes, but the vast majority have been detected through indirect methods, such as the transit method and the radial-velocity method. As of 1 March 2024, there are 5,640 confirmed exoplanets in 4,155 planetary systems, with 895 systems having more than one planet. This is a list of the most notable discoveries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kepler-10</span> Sunlike star in the constellation Draco

Kepler-10, formerly known as KOI-72, is a Sun-like star in the constellation of Draco that lies 607 light-years from Earth. Kepler-10 was targeted by NASA's Kepler spacecraft, as it was seen as the first star identified by the Kepler mission that could be a possible host to a small, transiting exoplanet. The star is slightly less massive, slightly larger, and slightly cooler than the Sun; at an estimated 11.9 billion years in age, Kepler-10 is 2.3 times the age of the Sun.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kepler-11</span> Sun-like star in the constellation Cygnus

Kepler-11, also designated as 2MASS J19482762+4154328, is a Sun-like star slightly larger than the Sun in the constellation Cygnus, located some 2,150 light years from Earth. It is located within the field of vision of the Kepler spacecraft, the satellite that NASA's Kepler Mission uses to detect planets that may be transiting their stars. Announced on February 2, 2011, the star system is among the most compact and flattest systems yet discovered. It is the first discovered case of a star system with six transiting planets. All discovered planets are larger than Earth, with the larger ones being about Neptune's size.

Kepler-14b is an extrasolar planet in orbit around the primary star of the binary Kepler-14 system. It is currently the only planet known to exist in this star system. Kepler-14b is 8.4 times the mass of Jupiter and has a radius 1.14 times that of Jupiter, and it orbits its host star every 6.79 days. It was discovered by NASA-led Kepler mission, which noted the planet as a planetary candidate as early as March 2009, around the same time as the discovery of the first five planets discovered by Kepler. However, the team was unable to confirm the planet until extensive follow-up observations, as high-resolution imaging resolved the star Kepler-14 as a closely orbiting binary system. The Kepler team would have not noticed that Kepler-14 was a binary star based solely on initial radial velocity measurements, and found that if they had not realized this, their data on Kepler-14b would have been very inaccurate.

Kepler-20 is a star about 934 light-years from Earth in the constellation Lyra with a system of at least five, and possibly six, known planets. The apparent magnitude of this star is 12.51, so it cannot be seen with the unaided eye. Viewing it requires a telescope with an aperture of 15 cm (6 in) or more. It is slightly smaller than the Sun, with 94% of the Sun's radius and about 91% of the Sun's mass. The effective temperature of the photosphere is slightly cooler than that of the Sun at 5466 K, giving it the characteristic yellow hue of a stellar class G8 star. The abundance of elements other than hydrogen or helium, what astronomers term the metallicity, is approximately the same as in the Sun. It may be older than the Sun, although the margin of error here is relatively large.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kepler-62</span> K-type star in the constellation Lyra

Kepler-62 is a K-type main sequence star cooler and smaller than the Sun, located roughly 980 light-years from Earth in the constellation Lyra. It resides within the field of vision of the Kepler spacecraft, the satellite that NASA's Kepler Mission used to detect planets that may be transiting their stars. On April 18, 2013, it was announced that the star has five planets, two of which, Kepler-62e and Kepler-62f are within the star's habitable zone. The outermost, Kepler-62f, is likely a rocky planet.

Kepler-61 is a K-type main-sequence star approximately 1,100 light years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus. It is located within the field of vision of the Kepler spacecraft, the satellite that NASA's Kepler Mission used to detect planets that may be transiting their stars. On April 24, 2013 it was announced that the star has an extrasolar planet orbiting in the inner edge of the habitable zone, named Kepler-61b.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kepler-452</span> G-type main-sequence star in the constellation Cygnus

Kepler-452 is a G-type main-sequence star located about 1,800 light-years away from Earth in the Cygnus constellation. Although similar in temperature to the Sun, it is 20% brighter, 3.7% more massive and 11% larger. Alongside this, the star is approximately six billion years old and possesses a high metallicity.

Kepler-1229 is a red dwarf star located about 870 light-years (270 pc) away from the Earth in the constellation of Cygnus. It is known to host a super-Earth exoplanet within its habitable zone, Kepler-1229b, which was discovered in 2016.

Kepler-432 is a binary star system with at least two planets in orbit around the primary companion, located about 2,830 light-years away from Earth.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Vallenari, A.; et al. (Gaia collaboration) (2023). "Gaia Data Release 3. Summary of the content and survey properties". Astronomy and Astrophysics. 674: A1. arXiv: 2208.00211 . Bibcode:2023A&A...674A...1G. doi: 10.1051/0004-6361/202243940 . S2CID   244398875. Gaia DR3 record for this source at VizieR.
  2. 1 2 3 Skrutskie, Michael F.; Cutri, Roc M.; Stiening, Rae; Weinberg, Martin D.; Schneider, Stephen E.; Carpenter, John M.; Beichman, Charles A.; Capps, Richard W.; Chester, Thomas; Elias, Jonathan H.; Huchra, John P.; Liebert, James W.; Lonsdale, Carol J.; Monet, David G.; Price, Stephan; Seitzer, Patrick; Jarrett, Thomas H.; Kirkpatrick, J. Davy; Gizis, John E.; Howard, Elizabeth V.; Evans, Tracey E.; Fowler, John W.; Fullmer, Linda; Hurt, Robert L.; Light, Robert M.; Kopan, Eugene L.; Marsh, Kenneth A.; McCallon, Howard L.; Tam, Robert; Van Dyk, Schuyler D.; Wheelock, Sherry L. (1 February 2006). "The Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS)". The Astronomical Journal. 131 (2): 1163–1183. Bibcode:2006AJ....131.1163S. doi: 10.1086/498708 . ISSN   0004-6256. S2CID   18913331. Vizier catalog entry
  3. "Kepler-6". SIMBAD . Centre de données astronomiques de Strasbourg . Retrieved 2019-11-29.
  4. "Mission overview". Kepler and K2. NASA. 13 April 2015. Retrieved 7 August 2020.
  5. Alexander J. Willman Jr. (5 January 2010). "Kepler 6 Planetary System". Princeton University . Retrieved 19 February 2011.
  6. Rich Talcott (5 January 2010). "215th AAS meeting update: Kepler discoveries the talk of the town". Astronomy.com. Astronomy magazine. Retrieved 19 February 2011.
  7. 1 2 3 4 "Summary Table of Kepler Discoveries". NASA. 2010-08-27. Archived from the original on 2010-05-27. Retrieved 2010-10-16.
  8. "NASA's Kepler Space Telescope Discovers its First Five Exoplanets". NASA. 4 January 2010. Retrieved 26 February 2011.
  9. 1 2 "Notes for star Kepler-6". Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia . 2010. Archived from the original on 21 January 2011. Retrieved 19 February 2011.
  10. Fraser Cain (September 15, 2008). "Temperature of the Sun". Universe Today. Retrieved 19 February 2011.
  11. Charles H. Lineweaver (2001). "An Estimate of the Age Distribution of Terrestrial Planets in the Universe: Quantifying Metallicity as a Selection Effect". Icarus. 151 (2): 307–313. arXiv: astro-ph/0012399 . Bibcode:2001Icar..151..307L. doi:10.1006/icar.2001.6607. S2CID   14077895.
  12. "Pluto Fact Sheet". Goddard Space Flight Center . NASA. 17 November 2010. Retrieved 24 February 2011.
  13. Dunham, Edward W.; et al. (2010). "Kepler-6b: A Transiting Hot Jupiter Orbiting a Metal-rich Star". The Astrophysical Journal Letters. 713 (2): L136–L139. arXiv: 1001.0333 . Bibcode: 2010ApJ...713L.136D . doi: 10.1088/2041-8205/713/2/L136 .