Kepler-76b is a

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" ...

with mass about two times that of

Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but slightly less than one-thousandth t ...

. It is a

Hot Jupiter Hot Jupiters (sometimes called hot Saturns) are a class of gas giant exoplanets that are inferred to be physically similar to Jupiter but that have very short orbital periods (). The close proximity to their stars and high surface-atmosphere tem ...

that orbits its star every 1.5 days. It was confirmed with the

Trans-Atlantic Exoplanet Survey The Trans-Atlantic Exoplanet Survey, or ''TrES'', used three 4-inch (10 cm) telescopes located at Lowell Observatory, Palomar Observatory, and Teide Observatory to locate exoplanets. It was made using the network of small, relatively inexpe ...

and the

SOPHIE échelle spectrograph The SOPHIE (Spectrographe pour l’Observation des Phénomènes des Intérieurs stellaires et des Exoplanètes, literally meaning "spectrograph for the observation of the phenomena of the stellar interiors and of the exoplanets") ''échelle spectrog ...

Detection

The planet was discovered by observing the amount of stellar flux reaching the Earth. The existence of the planet was confirmed by also observing the reflected starlight from the planet, the shape of the star due to gravitational tug from the planet and radial velocity method. Finally, part of the planet was found transiting the parent star with secondary occultation also being detected. It is the first planet detected using Einstein's

special relativity In physics, the special theory of relativity, or special relativity for short, is a scientific theory regarding the relationship between space and time. In Albert Einstein's original treatment, the theory is based on two postulates: # The laws ...

Characteristics

Kepler-76b is slightly denser than

indicating that it is not a

puffy planet Hot Jupiters (sometimes called hot Saturns) are a class of gas giant exoplanets that are inferred to be physically similar to Jupiter but that have very short orbital periods (). The close proximity to their stars and high surface-atmosphere temp ...

. Nonetheless, it is very hot with measured dayside temperature of 2830 K. It also exhibits a strong winds and variable clouds in the atmosphere.

References

External links

Table of confirmed planets
at NASA, Kepler mission {{Sky, 18, 52, 51.06019, +, 45, 20, 59.507 Exoplanets discovered in 2013 Exoplanets discovered by the Kepler space telescope Hot Jupiters Cygnus (constellation)