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A terrestrial planet, telluric planet, solid planet, or rocky planet, is a planet that is composed primarily of silicate rocks or metals. Within the Solar System, the terrestrial planets accepted by the IAU are the inner planets closest to the Sun: Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. Among astronomers who use the geophysical definition of a planet, two or three planetary-mass satellites – Earth's Moon, Io, and sometimes Europa – may also be considered terrestrial planets; and so may be the rocky protoplanet-asteroids Pallas and Vesta. The terms "terrestrial planet" and "telluric planet" are derived from Latin words for Earth, as these planets are, in terms of structure, Earth-like. Terrestrial planets are generally studied by geologists, astronomers, and geophysicists.
A super-Earth is a type of exoplanet with a mass higher than Earth's, but substantially below those of the Solar System's ice giants, Uranus and Neptune, which are 14.5 and 17 times Earth's, respectively. The term "super-Earth" refers only to the mass of the planet, and so does not imply anything about the surface conditions or habitability. The alternative term "gas dwarfs" may be more accurate for those at the higher end of the mass scale, although "mini-Neptunes" is a more common term.
Kepler-20f (also known by its Kepler Object of Interest designation KOI-070.05) is an exoplanet orbiting the Sun-like star Kepler-20, the second outermost of five such planets discovered by NASA's Kepler spacecraft. It is located approximately 929 light-years (285 parsecs, or about 8.988×1015 km) from Earth in the constellation Lyra. The exoplanet was found by using the transit method, in which the dimming effect that a planet causes as it crosses in front of its star is measured. The planet is notable as it has the closest radius to Earth known so far.
A Mini-Neptune is a planet less massive than Neptune but resembling Neptune in that it has a thick hydrogen–helium atmosphere, probably with deep layers of ice, rock or liquid oceans.
Kepler-47c is an exoplanet orbiting the binary star system Kepler-47, the outermost of three such planets discovered by NASA's Kepler spacecraft. The system, also involving two other exoplanets, is located about 3,400 light-years away.
Kepler-62e is a super-Earth exoplanet discovered orbiting within the habitable zone of Kepler-62, the second outermost of five such planets discovered by NASA's Kepler spacecraft. Kepler-62e is located about 990 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Lyra. The exoplanet was found using the transit method, in which the dimming effect that a planet causes as it crosses in front of its star is measured. Kepler-62e may be a terrestrial or ocean-covered planet; it lies in the inner part of its host star's habitable zone.
Kepler-62c is an approximately Mars-sized exoplanet discovered in orbit around the star Kepler-62, the second innermost of five discovered by NASA's Kepler spacecraft around Kepler-62. At the time of discovery it was the second-smallest exoplanet discovered and confirmed by the Kepler spacecraft, after Kepler-37b. It was found using the transit method, in which the dimming that a planet causes as it crosses in front of its star is measured. Its stellar flux is 25 ± 3 times Earth's. It is similar to Mercury.
Kepler-62d is the third innermost and the largest exoplanet discovered orbiting the star Kepler-62, with a size roughly twice the diameter of Earth. It was found using the transit method, in which the dimming that a planet causes as it crosses in front of its star is measured. Its stellar flux is 15 ± 2 times Earth's. Due to its closer orbit to its star, it is a super-Venus or, if it has a volatile composition, a hot Neptune, with an estimated equilibrium temperature of 510 K, too hot to sustain life on its surface.
Kepler-62b is the innermost and the second smallest discovered exoplanet orbiting the star Kepler-62, with a diameter roughly 30% larger than Earth. It was found using the transit method, in which the dimming effect that a planet causes as it crosses in front of its star is measured. It is likely to have an equilibrium temperature slightly higher than the surface temperature of Venus, high enough to melt some types of metal. Its stellar flux is 70 ± 9 times Earth's.
Kepler-61b is a super-Earth exoplanet orbiting within parts of the habitable zone of the K-type main-sequence star Kepler-61. It is located about 1,100 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Cygnus. It was discovered in 2013 using the transit method, in which the dimming effect that a planet causes as it crosses in front of its star is measured, by NASA's Kepler spacecraft.
A mega-Earth is a proposed neologism for a massive terrestrial exoplanet that is at least ten times the mass of Earth. Mega-Earths would be substantially more massive than super-Earths. The term "mega-Earth" was coined in 2014, when Kepler-10c was revealed to be a Neptune-mass planet with a density considerably greater than that of Earth, though it has since been determined to be a typical volatile-rich planet weighing just under half that mass.
KOI-256 is a double star located in the constellation Cygnus approximately 575 light-years (176 pc) from Earth. While observations by the Kepler spacecraft suggested the system contained a gas giant exoplanet orbiting a red dwarf, later studies determined that KOI-256 was a binary system composed of the red dwarf orbiting a white dwarf.
HD 219134 d, also known as HR 8832 d, is an exoplanet orbiting around the K-type star HD 219134 in the constellation of Cassiopeia. It has a minimum mass over 16 times that of Earth, indicating that it is likely a Hot Neptune. The exoplanet was initially detected by the instrument HARPS-N of the Italian Telescopio Nazionale Galileo via the radial velocity method. Unlike HD 219134 b and HD 219134 c it was not observed by the Spitzer Space Telescope and thus its radius and density are unknown. Only a minimum possible radius can be given.
WD 1145+017 b, is a confirmed exoplanetary object, likely rocky, orbiting around and being vaporized by the white dwarf star WD 1145+017. It was discovered by NASA's Kepler spacecraft on its "Second Light" mission. It is located about 570 light-years away from Earth in the constellation of Virgo. The object was found by using the transit method, in which the dimming effect that a planet causes as it crosses in front of its star is measured.
Kepler-277c is the third most massive and second-largest rocky planet ever discovered, with a mass about 64 times that of Earth. Discovered in 2014 by the Kepler Space Telescope, Kepler-277c is a Neptune-sized exoplanet with a very high mass and density for an object of its radius, suggesting a composition made mainly of rock with some amounts of water. Along with its sister planet, Kepler-277b, the planet's mass was determined using transit-timing variations (TTVs).
K2-138, also designated EPIC 245950175 or EE-1, is a large early K-type main sequence star with a system of at least 6 planets discovered by citizen scientists. Four were found in the first two days of the Exoplanet Explorers project on Zooniverse in early April 2017, while two more were revealed in further analysis. The system is about 660 light-years away in the constellation Aquarius, within K2 Campaign 12.
K2-148b is a confirmed super-Earth, probably rocky, closely orbiting a small orange dwarf star. It is the innermost of three Super-Earths around the star K2-148, which is in a wide binary pair with the M0.5V red dwarf EPIC 220194953. K2-148b is the smallest planet of the system, at about a third larger than Earth, and could be terrestrial in nature. However, the three planets do not exhibit significant transit timing variations, implying that they could have relatively low masses. The planet was validated in early 2018 by Hirano et al. and is too hot for known life.
K2-141b is a massive rocky exoplanet orbiting extremely close to an orange main-sequence star K2-141. The planet was first discovered by the Kepler space telescope during its K2 “Second Light” mission and later observed by the HARPS-N spectrograph. It is classified as an Ultra-short Period (USP) and is confirmed to be terrestrial in nature. Its high density implies a massive iron core taking up between 30% and 50% of the planet's total mass.
K2-229b is an extremely hot, solid, iron-rich exoplanet in a close orbit around the active K-dwarf K2-229 in the constellation Virgo, 335 light years away from Earth.
K2-229 is a K-type main sequence star approximately 103 parsecs away in the constellation Virgo. It was observed by the Kepler Space Telescope during its K2 "Second Light" mission in Campaign 10.
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Kepler-277 b CONFIRMED PLANET OVERVIEW PAGE". NASA Exoplanet Archive. Retrieved 2018-01-20.
- 1 2 Xie, Ji-Wei (7 January 2014). "Transit Timing Variation of Near-Resonance Planetary Pairs. Ii. Confirmation of 30 Planets in 15 Multiple-Planet Systems". The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series. 210 (2): 25. arXiv: 1309.2329 . Bibcode:2014ApJS..210...25X. doi:10.1088/0067-0049/210/2/25. S2CID 119105092.
- 1 2 "PHL's calculators". Archived from the original on 2019-06-02. Retrieved 2018-01-21.
- ↑ "Kepler-277".
- ↑ "A planet made of diamond".
- 1 2 Futó, P.; et al. (March 2020). Kepler-277 b: A Supermassive Terrestrial Exoplanet in the Kepler-277 Planetary System (PDF). 51st Lunar and Planetary Science Conference. Lunar and Planetary Institute. Bibcode:2020LPI....51.1055F.
