![]() Artist's impression of the Kepler-452 and Kepler-186 systems compared to the inner Solar System, with their respective habitable zones shown. | |
Observation data Epoch J2000 Equinox J2000 | |
---|---|
Constellation | Cygnus |
Right ascension | 19h 44m 00.8861s [1] |
Declination | +44° 16′ 39.171″ [1] |
Apparent magnitude (V) | 13.426 [2] |
Characteristics | |
Evolutionary stage | Main sequence |
Spectral type | G2V [3] |
Astrometry | |
Proper motion (μ) | RA: 9.987(13) mas/yr [1] Dec.: 8.943(14) mas/yr [1] |
Parallax (π) | 1.8053 ± 0.0103 mas [1] |
Distance | 1,810 ± 10 ly (554 ± 3 pc) |
Details | |
Mass | 1.037+0.054 −0.047 M☉ |
Radius | 1.11+0.15 −0.09 R☉ |
Luminosity | 1.2 L☉ |
Surface gravity (log g) | 4.32 ± 0.09 cgs |
Temperature | 5757 ± 85 K |
Metallicity [Fe/H] | 0.21 ± 0.09 dex |
Age | 6 ± 2 Gyr |
Other designations | |
Database references | |
SIMBAD | data |
Exoplanet Archive | data |
KIC | data |
Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia | data |
Kepler-452 is a G-type main-sequence star located about 1,810 light-years away from Earth [1] in the Cygnus constellation. [5] Although similar in temperature to the Sun, it is 20% brighter, 3.7% more massive and 11% larger. [6] [7] Alongside this, the star is approximately six billion years old and possesses a high metallicity. [3]
Prior to Kepler observation, Kepler-452 had the 2MASS catalogue number 2MASS 19440088+4416392. In the Kepler Input Catalog, it has the designation of KIC 8311864. When it was found to have a transiting planet candidate, it was given the Kepler object of interest number of KOI-7016.
Planetary candidates were detected around the star by NASA's Kepler Mission, a mission tasked with discovering planets in transit around their stars. The transit method that Kepler uses involves detecting dips in brightness of stars. These dips in brightness can be interpreted as planets whose orbits pass in front of their stars from the perspective of Earth, although other phenomena can also be responsible which is why the term "planetary candidate" is used. [8]
Following the acceptance of the discovery paper, the Kepler team referred to the star as Kepler-452, which is the normal procedure for naming exoplanets discovered by the spacecraft. [9] [3] Hence, this is the name usually used by the public to refer to the star and its planet.
Candidate planets that are associated with stars studied by the Kepler Mission are assigned the designations ".01", ".02", and so on, after the star's name, in the order of discovery. [2] If planet candidates are detected simultaneously, then the ordering follows the order of orbital periods from shortest to longest. [2] Following these rules, there was only one candidate planet detected, with an orbital period of 384.843 days. The name Kepler-452 derives directly from the fact that the star is the catalogued 452nd star discovered by Kepler to have confirmed planets.
The designation b, derives from the order of discovery. The designation of b is given to the first planet orbiting a given star, followed by the other lowercase letters of the alphabet. [10] In the case of Kepler-452, there was only one planet, so only the letter b is used.
Kepler-452 is a G-type star that is approximately 104% the mass of and 111% the radius of the Sun. It has a temperature of 5757 K and is roughly 6 billion years old. In comparison, the Sun is about 4.6 billion years old [11] and has a temperature of 5778 K. [12]
The star is metal-rich, with a metallicity (Fe/H) of about 0.21, or about 162% of the amount of iron and other heavier metals found in the Sun. [3] The star's luminosity is somewhat normal for a star like Kepler-452, with a luminosity of around 120% of that of the solar luminosity.
The star's apparent magnitude, or how bright it appears from Earth's perspective, is 13.426. Therefore, it is too dim to be seen with the naked eye.
Companion (in order from star) | Mass | Semimajor axis (AU) | Orbital period (days) | Eccentricity | Inclination | Radius |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
b (unconfirmed [14] [15] ) | 5 ± 2 [16] M🜨 | 1.046+0.019 −0.015 | 384.843+0.007 −0.012 | — | 89.806+0.134 −0.049 ° | 1.5+0.32 −0.22 R🜨 |
The star hosts one unconfirmed exoplanet, Kepler-452b, discovered in July 2015 by the Kepler spacecraft. This planet is mostly known for its characteristics similar to Earth, most notably its size, orbit and stellar flux. It is the first potentially rocky super-Earth [17] planet discovered orbiting within the habitable zone and the abiogenesis zone of a star very similar to the Sun. [6] [18] It may even have a surface temperature similar to that of Earth (the planet has an equilibrium temperature of approximately 265 K (−8 °C; 17 °F) (Earth's equilibrium temperature is only 10 K cooler than this). However, its star is 6 billion years old (roughly 1.5 billion years older than the Sun). Due to this, Kepler-452b is receiving roughly 10% more stellar radiation than the Earth does today. If Kepler-452b is a rocky planet, it might be subject to a runaway greenhouse effect. However, because of its mass (estimated to be about 5 ME), it may be able to prevent succumbing to the runaway greenhouse for a limited amount of time (at most about 500 million years). Nevertheless, the planet is one of the most Earth-like planets discovered so far by the Kepler team. Both the Earth and Kepler-452b are at just the right distances from their stars so that water can be liquid, at a temperature between 0 °C and 100 °C. [19]
This table compares the Sun to Kepler-452.
Identifier | J2000 Coordinates | Distance (ly) | Stellar Class | Temperature (K) | Metallicity (dex) | Age (Gyr) | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Right ascension | Declination | |||||||
Sun | — | — | 0.00 | G2V | 5,778 | +0.00 | 4.6 | [20] |
Kepler-452 [21] | 19h 44m 00.89s | +44° 16′ 39.2″ | 1,800 | G2V | 5,757 | +0.21 | 6.0 | [22] |
The Kepler space telescope is a defunct space telescope launched by NASA in 2009 to discover Earth-sized planets orbiting other stars. Named after astronomer Johannes Kepler, the spacecraft was launched into an Earth-trailing heliocentric orbit. The principal investigator was William J. Borucki. After nine and a half years of operation, the telescope's reaction control system fuel was depleted, and NASA announced its retirement on October 30, 2018.
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 24 July 2024, there are 7,026 confirmed exoplanets in 4,949 planetary systems, with 1007 systems having more than one planet. This is a list of the most notable discoveries.
Kepler-22b is an exoplanet orbiting within the habitable zone of the Sun-like star Kepler-22. It is located about 640 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Cygnus. It was discovered by NASA's Kepler Space Telescope in December 2011 and was the first known transiting planet to orbit within the habitable zone of a Sun-like star, where liquid water could exist on the planet's surface. Kepler-22 is too dim to be seen with the naked eye.
Kepler-47 is a binary star system in the constellation Cygnus located about 3,420 light-years away from Earth. The stars have three exoplanets, all of which orbit both stars at the same time, making this a circumbinary system. The first two planets announced are designated Kepler-47b, and Kepler-47c, and the third, later discovery is Kepler-47d. Kepler-47 is the first circumbinary multi-planet system discovered by the Kepler mission. The outermost of the planets is a gas giant orbiting within the habitable zone of the stars. Because most stars are binary, the discovery that multi-planet systems can form in such a system has impacted previous theories of planetary formation.
Kepler-37, also known as UGA-1785, is a G-type main-sequence star located in the constellation Lyra 209 light-years from Earth. It is host to exoplanets Kepler-37b, Kepler-37c, Kepler-37d and possibly Kepler-37e, all of which orbit very close to it. Kepler-37 has a mass about 80.3 percent of the Sun's and a radius about 77 percent as large. It has a temperature similar to that of the Sun, but a bit cooler at 5,357 K. It has about half the metallicity of the Sun. With an age of roughly 6 billion years, it is slightly older than the Sun, but is still a main-sequence star. Until January 2015, Kepler-37 was the smallest star to be measured via asteroseismology.
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-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-62f is a super-Earth exoplanet orbiting within the habitable zone of the star Kepler-62, the outermost of five such planets discovered around the star by NASA's Kepler space telescope. It is located about 982 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Lyra.
Kepler-69 is a G-type main-sequence star similar to the Sun in the constellation Cygnus, located about 2,390 ly (730 pc) from Earth. On April 18, 2013 it was announced that the star has two planets. Although initial estimates indicated that the terrestrial planet Kepler-69c might be within the star's habitable zone, further analysis showed that the planet very likely is interior to the habitable zone and is far more analogous to Venus than to Earth and thus completely inhospitable.
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-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.
Kepler-186f is an Earth-sized exoplanet orbiting within the habitable zone of the red dwarf star Kepler-186, the outermost of five such planets discovered around the star by NASA's Kepler space telescope. It is located about 580 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Cygnus.
Kepler-438b is a confirmed near-Earth-sized exoplanet. It is likely rocky. It orbits on the inner edge of the habitable zone of a red dwarf, Kepler-438, about 460.2 light-years from Earth in the constellation Lyra. It receives 1.4 times our solar flux. The planet was discovered by NASA's Kepler spacecraft using the transit method, in which the dimming effect that a planet causes as it crosses in front of its star is measured. NASA announced the confirmation of the exoplanet on 6 January 2015.
Kepler-442b is a confirmed near-Earth-sized exoplanet, likely rocky, orbiting within the habitable zone of the K-type main-sequence star Kepler-442, about 1,196 light-years (367 pc) from Earth in the constellation of Lyra.
Kepler-452b is a candidate super-Earth exoplanet orbiting within the inner edge of the habitable zone of the sun-like star Kepler-452 and is the only planet in the system discovered by the Kepler space telescope. It is located about 1,800 light-years (550 pc) from Earth in the constellation of Cygnus.
Kepler-419c is a super-Jupiter exoplanet orbiting within the habitable zone of the star Kepler-419, the outermost of two such planets discovered by NASA's Kepler spacecraft. It is located about 3,400 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus. The exoplanet was found by using the transit timing variation method, in which the variations of transit data from an exoplanet are studied to reveal a more distant companion.
Kepler-1229 is a red dwarf star located about 875 light-years (268 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-442 is a K-type main-sequence star approximately 1,196 light years from Earth in the constellation Lyra. 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 January 6, 2015, along with the stars of Kepler-438 and Kepler-440, it was announced that the star has an extrasolar planet orbiting within the habitable zone, named Kepler-442b.
Kepler-432 is a binary star system with at least two planets in orbit around the primary companion, located about 2,780 light-years away from Earth.
Habitability of yellow dwarf systems defines the suitability for life of exoplanets belonging to yellow dwarf stars. These systems are the object of study among the scientific community because they are considered the most suitable for harboring living organisms, together with those belonging to K-type stars.