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Kepler-138b
Kepler-138, also known as KOI-314, is a red dwarf located in the constellation Lyra, 219 light years from Earth. It is located within the field of vision of the Kepler spacecraft, the satellite that NASA's Kepler Mission used to detect planets transiting their stars. The star hosts three confirmed planets and a likely fourth, including the lowest-mass exoplanet with a measured mass and size discovered to date, Kepler-138b, with a mass comparable to that of Mars. Kepler-138d is remarkable for its low density; initially thought likely to be a gas dwarf, more recent observations as of 2022 show that it, as well as planet c, are likely to be ocean worlds. Nomenclature and history Prior to Kepler observation, KOI-314 had the 2MASS catalogue number 2MASS J19213157+4317347. In the Kepler Input Catalog it has the designation of KIC 7603200, and when it was found to have transiting planet candidates it was given the Kepler object of interest number of KOI-314. Plane ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kepler-138 Artist's Impression
Kepler-138, also known as KOI-314, is a red dwarf located in the constellation Lyra, 219 light years from Earth. It is located within the field of vision of the Kepler spacecraft, the satellite that NASA's Kepler Mission used to detect planets transiting their stars. The star hosts three confirmed planets and a likely fourth, including the lowest-mass exoplanet with a measured mass and size discovered to date, Kepler-138b, with a mass comparable to that of Mars. Kepler-138d is remarkable for its low density; initially thought likely to be a gas dwarf, more recent observations as of 2022 show that it, as well as planet c, are likely to be ocean worlds. Nomenclature and history Prior to Kepler observation, KOI-314 had the 2MASS catalogue number 2MASS J19213157+4317347. In the Kepler Input Catalog it has the designation of KIC 7603200, and when it was found to have transiting planet candidates it was given the Kepler object of interest number of KOI-314. Plane ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gas Dwarf
A Mini-Neptune (sometimes known as a gas dwarf or transitional planet) 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 (made of water, ammonia, a mixture of both, or heavier volatiles). A gas dwarf is a gas planet with a rocky core that has accumulated a thick envelope of hydrogen, helium, and other volatiles, having, as a result, a total radius between 1.7 and 3.9 Earth radii (). The term is used in a three-tier, metallicity-based classification regime for short-period exoplanet An exoplanet or extrasolar planet is a planet outside the Solar System. The first possible evidence of an exoplanet was noted in 1917 but was not recognized as such. The first confirmation of detection occurred in 1992. A different planet, init ...s, which also includes the rocky, terrestrial-like planets with less than and planets greater than , namely ice giants and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gas Giant
A gas giant is a giant planet composed mainly of hydrogen and helium. Gas giants are also called failed stars because they contain the same basic elements as a star. Jupiter and Saturn are the gas giants of the Solar System. The term "gas giant" was originally synonymous with "giant planet". However, in the 1990s, it became known that Uranus and Neptune are really a distinct class of giant planets, being composed mainly of heavier volatile substances (which are referred to as "ices"). For this reason, Uranus and Neptune are now often classified in the separate category of ice giants. Jupiter and Saturn consist mostly of hydrogen and helium, with heavier elements making up between 3 and 13 percent of their mass.The Interior of Jupiter, Guillot et al., in ''Jupiter: The Planet, Satellites and Magnetosphere'', Bagenal et al., editors, Cambridge University Press, 2004 They are thought to consist of an outer layer of compressed molecular hydrogen surrounding a layer of liquid metallic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Super-Earth
A super-Earth is an extrasolar planet 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. Definition In general, super-Earths are defined by their masses, and the term does not imply temperatures, compositions, orbital properties, habitability, or environments. While sources generally agree on an upper bound of 10 Earth masses (~69% of the mass of Uranus, which is the Solar System's giant planet with the least mass), the lower bound varies from 1 or 1.9 to 5, with various other definitions appearing in the popular media. The term "super-Earth" is also used by astronomers to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Earth Radius
Earth radius (denoted as ''R''🜨 or R_E) is the distance from the center of Earth to a point on or near its surface. Approximating the figure of Earth by an Earth spheroid, the radius ranges from a maximum of nearly (equatorial radius, denoted ''a'') to a minimum of nearly (polar radius, denoted ''b''). A ''nominal Earth radius'' is sometimes used as a unit of measurement in astronomy and geophysics, which is recommended by the International Astronomical Union to be the equatorial value. A globally-average value is usually considered to be with a 0.3% variability (±10 km) for the following reasons. The International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) provides three reference values: the ''mean radius'' (R) of three radii measured at two equator points and a pole; the ''authalic radius'', which is the radius of a sphere with the same surface area (R); and the ''volumetric radius'', which is the radius of a sphere having the same volume as the ellipsoid (R). All three ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Transit-timing Variation
Transit-timing variation is a method for detecting exoplanets by observing variations in the timing of a transit. This provides an extremely sensitive method capable of detecting additional planets in the system with masses potentially as small as that of Earth. In tightly packed planetary systems, the gravitational pull of the planets among themselves causes one planet to accelerate and another planet to decelerate along its orbit. The acceleration causes the orbital period of each planet to change. Detecting this effect by measuring the change is known as transit-timing variations. "Timing variation" asks whether the transit occurs with strict periodicity or if there's a variation. The first significant detection of a non-transiting planet using transit-timing variations was carried out with NASA's Kepler telescope. The transiting planet Kepler-19b shows transit-timing variation with an amplitude of 5 minutes and a period of about 300 days, indicating the presence of a second ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Inclination
Orbital inclination measures the tilt of an object's orbit around a celestial body. It is expressed as the angle between a Plane of reference, reference plane and the orbital plane or Axis of rotation, axis of direction of the orbiting object. For a satellite orbiting the Earth directly above the Equator, the plane of the satellite's orbit is the same as the Earth's equatorial plane, and the satellite's orbital inclination is 0°. The general case for a circular orbit is that it is tilted, spending half an orbit over the northern hemisphere and half over the southern. If the orbit swung between 20° north latitude and 20° south latitude, then its orbital inclination would be 20°. Orbits The inclination is one of the six orbital elements describing the shape and orientation of a celestial orbit. It is the angle between the orbital plane and the plane of reference, normally stated in degree (angle), degrees. For a satellite orbiting a planet, the plane of reference is usually ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Apparent Magnitude
Apparent magnitude () is a measure of the brightness of a star or other astronomical object observed from Earth. An object's apparent magnitude depends on its intrinsic luminosity, its distance from Earth, and any extinction of the object's light caused by interstellar dust along the line of sight to the observer. The word ''magnitude'' in astronomy, unless stated otherwise, usually refers to a celestial object's apparent magnitude. The magnitude scale dates back to the ancient Roman astronomer Claudius Ptolemy, whose star catalog listed stars from 1st magnitude (brightest) to 6th magnitude (dimmest). The modern scale was mathematically defined in a way to closely match this historical system. The scale is reverse logarithmic: the brighter an object is, the lower its magnitude number. A difference of 1.0 in magnitude corresponds to a brightness ratio of \sqrt /math>, or about 2.512. For example, a star of magnitude 2.0 is 2.512 times as bright as a star of magnitude 3.0, 6. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Universe Today
Universe Today (U.T.) is a popular North American-based non-commercial space and astronomy news website. The domain was registered on December 30, 1998, and the website went live in March 1999, founded by Canadian Fraser Cain. The ''Universe Today'' assumed its current form on July 24, 2003, featuring astronomy news and space-related issues. By early September 2005, the forum section merged with ''Bad Astronomy'' as a combined site with the BAUT forum. During April 2011, the Association of British Science Writers noted that ''Universe Today'' decided not to make preparations for reporting on embargoed stories until they are public knowledge. Emily Lakdawalla said that she relies on ''Universe Today'' and ''Bad Astronomy'' to "give ... an independent look at big news stories". Publications ''Universe Today'' has published two books, which are available both as e-books and on physical media: * * See also * ''Astronomy Cast'' * ''Space.com'' * ''The Space Show ''The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mu Arae
Mu Arae (μ Arae, abbreviated Mu Ara, μ Ara), often designated HD 160691, officially named Cervantes , is a main sequence G V star, G-type star approximately 50 light-years away from the Sun in the constellation of Ara (constellation), Ara. The star has a planetary system with four known Exoplanet, extrasolar planets (designated Mu Arae b, Mu Arae c, c, Mu Arae d, d and Mu Arae e, e; later named Quijote, Dulcinea, Rocinante and Sancho, respectively), three of them with masses comparable with that of Jupiter. Mu Arae c, the innermost, was the first hot Neptune or super-Earth discovered. Nomenclature ''μ Arae'' (Latinisation of names, Latinised to ''Mu Arae'') is the star's Bayer designation. HD 160691 is the entry in the Henry Draper Catalogue. The established convention for extrasolar planets is that the planets receive designations consisting of the star's name followed by lower-case Latin alphabet, Roman letters starting from "b", in order of discovery. This system ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
NASA Exoplanet Archive
The NASA Exoplanet Archive is an online astronomical exoplanet catalog and data service that collects and serves public data that support the search for and characterization of extra-solar planets (exoplanets) and their host stars. It is part of the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center and is on the campus of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, CA. The archive is funded by NASA and was launched in early December 2011 by the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute as part of NASA's Exoplanet Exploration Program. In June 2019, the archive's collection of confirmed exoplanets surpassed 4,000. (Compare: ) The archive's data include published light curves, images, spectra and parameters, and time-series data from surveys that aim to discover transiting exoplanets. The archive also develops Web-based tools and services to work with the data, particularly the display and analysis of transit data sets from the Kepler mission and COnvection ROtation and planetary Tr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
