Kepler-32 is an M-type

main sequence In astronomy, the main sequence is a continuous and distinctive band of stars that appears on plots of stellar color versus brightness. These color-magnitude plots are known as Hertzsprung–Russell diagrams after their co-developers, Ejnar Her ...

star A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by its gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked ...

located about 1070

light years A light-year, alternatively spelled light year, is a large unit of length used to express astronomical distances and is equivalent to about 9.46 trillion kilometers (), or 5.88 trillion miles ().One trillion here is taken to be 1012 ...

from Earth, in the constellation of Cygnus. Discovered in January 2012 by the

Kepler spacecraft The Kepler space telescope is a disused 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 orb ...

, it shows a 0.58 ± 0.05

solar mass The solar mass () is a standard unit of mass in astronomy, equal to approximately . It is often used to indicate the masses of other stars, as well as stellar clusters, nebulae, galaxies and black holes. It is approximately equal to the mass ...

(), a 0.53 ± 0.04

solar radius Solar radius is a unit of distance used to express the size of stars in astronomy relative to the Sun. The solar radius is usually defined as the radius to the layer in the Sun's photosphere where the optical depth equals 2/3: :1\,R_ = 6.957\tim ...

(), and temperature of 3900.0 K, making it half the mass and radius of the

Sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...

, two-thirds its temperature and 5% its luminosity.

Planetary system

In 2011, 2 planets orbiting around it, were discovered, and two more suspected. The smaller

Kepler-32b Kepler-32b (alt. name KOI 952.01) is an extrasolar planet in orbit around its M-dwarf-type star in the Kepler-32 system, constellation of Cygnus. Discovered by planetary transit methods with the Kepler space telescope in January 2012, it presents ...

, orbiting its parent star every 5.90124 days, and

Kepler-32c Kepler-32c (alt. name Kepler Object of Interest, KOI 952.02) is an extrasolar planet in orbit around its M-Yellow dwarf star, dwarf-type star in the Kepler-32 system, in the Cygnus (constellation), constellation of Cygnus. Discovered by planetary ...

with an orbital period of 8.7522 days. In April 2013, transit-timing variation analysis confirmed 3 other planets to be in the system. However, only very loose constraints of the maximum mass of the planets could be determined. In 2014, the dynamical simulation shown what the Kepler-32 planetary system have likely undergone a substantial inward migration in the past, producing an observed pattern of lower-mass planets on tightest orbits. Additional yet unobserved gas giant planets on wider orbit are likely necessary for migration of smaller planets to proceed that far inward, although current planetary system would be unstable if additional planets are located closer than 8.7 AU from the parent star.

References

Cygnus (constellation) M-type main-sequence stars

952 Year 952 ( CMLII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * Summer – At the Reichstag in Augsburg (assembled by King Otto I), joined by German nob ...

Planetary systems with five confirmed planets Planetary transit variables J19512217+4634273 {{Extrasolar-planet-stub