KSC-2009-1890 · NASA · NASA — public domain
Kepler-6 b
Sign in to saveKepler-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.
Astronomical data · SIMBAD
- Object type
- Pl
- Distance
- 1,906 light-years
- Coordinates
- RA 296.8372° · Dec 48.2399°
via SIMBAD · CDS Strasbourg
Key facts
- Planet.discovered
- 2010-01-04
- Planet.name
- Kepler-6b
- Planet.image
- Exoplanet Comparison Kepler-6 b.png
- Planet.caption
- Size comparison of Kepler-6b with Jupiter.
- Planet.discovery_method
- Transit (Kepler Mission)
- Planet.apsis
- astron
- Planet.semimajor
- 0.04567 ±0.00050 AU
- Planet.eccentricity
- 0
- Planet.period
- 3.234723 ± 0.000017 d
- Planet.inclination
- 86.8 ± 0.3
- Planet.star
- Kepler-6
- Planet.mean_radius
- 1.323 ± 0.026
- Planet.mass
- 0.669 ± 0.027
- Planet.albedo
- 0.11±0.04
- Planet.single_temperature
- 1660 ± 100
via Wikipedia infobox
Exoplanet data
- Host star
- Kepler-6
- Discovered
- 2009
- Discovered by
- Kepler
- Orbital period
- 3.23 days
- Radius
- 14.62 × Earth
- Mass
- 212.31 × Earth
- Equilibrium temp
- 1460 K
- Distance
- 587.04 pc
via NASA Exoplanet Archive
~4 min read
Encyclopedic overview
5 sectionsContents
- Discovery and naming
- Host star
- Characteristics
- References
- External links
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.
Follow-up observations led to the planet's confirmation, which was announced at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society on January 4, 2010 along with four other Kepler-discovered planets.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Kepler-6 b” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.