Kepler-10
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Kepler-10, formerly known as KOI-72, is a
Sun-like star Solar-type stars, solar analogs (also analogues), and solar twins are stars that are particularly similar to the Sun. The stellar classification is a hierarchy with solar twin being most like the Sun followed by solar analog and then solar-type. ...
in the constellation of
Draco DRACO (double-stranded RNA activated caspase oligomerizer) is a group of experimental antiviral drugs formerly under development at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In cell culture, DRACO was reported to have broad-spectrum efficacy aga ...
that lies from Earth. Kepler-10 was targeted by
NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...
's
Kepler space telescope 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 orb ...
, as it was seen as the first star identified by the Kepler mission that could be a possible host to a small, transiting exoplanet. The star is slightly less massive, slightly larger, and slightly cooler than the Sun; at an estimated 11.9 billion years in age, Kepler-10 is 2.3 times the age of the Sun. Kepler-10 is host to a
planetary system A planetary system is a set of gravity, gravitationally bound non-stellar Astronomical object, bodies in or out of orbit around a star or star system. Generally speaking, systems with one or more planets constitute a planetary system, although ...
made up of at least three planets.
Kepler-10b Kepler-10b is the first confirmed terrestrial planet to have been discovered outside the Solar System by the Kepler Space Telescope. Discovered after several months of data collection during the course of the NASA-directed Kepler Mission, which ...
, the first undeniably rocky planet, was discovered in its orbit after eight months of observation and announced on January 10, 2011. The planet orbits its star closely, completing an orbit every 0.8 days, and has a density similar to that of iron. The second planet,
Kepler-10c Kepler-10c is an Extrasolar planet, exoplanet orbiting the Stellar classification#Class G, G-type star Kepler-10, located around 608 light-years away in Draco (constellation), Draco. Its discovery was announced by the Kepler space telescope team ...
, was confirmed on May 23, 2011, based on follow-up observations by the
Spitzer Space Telescope The Spitzer Space Telescope, formerly the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF), was an infrared space telescope launched in 2003, that was deactivated when operations ended on 30 January 2020. Spitzer was the third space telescope dedicate ...
. The data shows it has an orbital period of 42.3 days and has a radius more than double that of Earth, but it was initially thought to have a higher density, making it the largest and most massive rocky planet discovered as of June 2014. However, refined mass measurements have shown it to be a more typical volatile-rich planet. A third planet, Kepler-10d, was discovered in 2023 by
radial velocity The radial velocity or line-of-sight velocity of a target with respect to an observer is the rate of change of the vector displacement between the two points. It is formulated as the vector projection of the target-observer relative velocity ...
observations.


Nomenclature and history

Kepler-10 was named because it was the tenth planetary system observed by the Kepler spacecraft, a NASA satellite designed to search for Earth-like planets that
transit Transit may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film * ''Transit'' (1980 film), a 1980 Israeli film * ''Transit'' (1986 film), a Canadian short film * ''Transit'' (2005 film), a film produced by MTV and Staying-Alive about four people in countrie ...
, or cross in front of, their host stars with respect to
Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...
. The transit slightly dims the host star; this periodic dimming effect is then noted by Kepler. After eight months of observation ranging from May 2009 to January 2010, the Kepler team established Kepler-10b as the first rocky exoplanet discovered by the Kepler satellite. Kepler-10 was the first Kepler-targeted star suspected of having a small planet in orbit. Because of that, verifying Kepler's discovery was prioritized by telescopes at the
W.M. Keck Observatory The W. M. Keck Observatory is an astronomical observatory with two telescopes at an elevation of 4,145 meters (13,600 ft) near the summit of Mauna Kea in the U.S. state of Hawaii. Both telescopes have aperture primary mirrors, and, when c ...
in Hawaii. The discovery was successfully verified. Although there had been many ''potentially'' rocky exoplanets discovered in the past, Kepler-10b was the first ''definitively'' rocky planet to have been discovered. The discovery of Kepler-10b was announced to the public at a winter meeting of the
American Astronomical Society The American Astronomical Society (AAS, sometimes spoken as "double-A-S") is an American society of professional astronomers and other interested individuals, headquartered in Washington, DC. The primary objective of the AAS is to promote the adv ...
on January 10, 2011, in Seattle. On May 23, 2011, the existence of Kepler-10c was confirmed at the 218th AAS meeting in Boston.


Characteristics

Kepler-10 is a G-type star, like the
Sun The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as visible light a ...
. With a mass of 0.895 (± 0.06) Msun and a radius of 1.056 (± 0.021) Rsun, the star is approximately 10% less massive than and 5% wider than the Sun. The
metallicity In astronomy, metallicity is the Abundance of the chemical elements, abundance of Chemical element, elements present in an object that are heavier than hydrogen and helium. Most of the normal currently detectable (i.e. non-Dark matter, dark) matt ...
of Kepler-10, as measured in e/H(the amount of
iron Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's o ...
in the star), is -0.15 (± 0.04); this means that Kepler-10 is about 70% as metal-rich as the Sun. Metallicity tends to play a large role in the formation of planets, determining if they form, and what kind of planet they will form. In addition, Kepler-10 is estimated to be 11.9 billion years old and to have an
effective temperature The effective temperature of a body such as a star or planet is the temperature of a black body that would emit the same total amount of electromagnetic radiation. Effective temperature is often used as an estimate of a body's surface temperature ...
of 5627 (± 44) K; To compare, the Sun is younger and hotter, with an age of 4.6 billion years and an effective temperature of 5778 K. Kepler-10 is located at a distance of 186 parsecs from the Earth, which equates to approximately 607 light years. Also, Kepler-10's
apparent magnitude Apparent magnitude () is a measure of the Irradiance, brightness of a star, astronomical object or other celestial objects like artificial satellites. Its value depends on its intrinsic luminosity, its distance, and any extinction (astronomy), ...
, or brightness as seen from Earth, is 10.96; it therefore cannot be seen with the
naked eye Naked eye, also called bare eye or unaided eye, is the practice of engaging in visual perception unaided by a magnification, magnifying, Optical telescope#Light-gathering power, light-collecting optical instrument, such as a telescope or microsc ...
.


Planetary system

Per the usual exoplanet nomenclature, the first planet discovered to be orbiting Kepler-10 is called
Kepler-10b Kepler-10b is the first confirmed terrestrial planet to have been discovered outside the Solar System by the Kepler Space Telescope. Discovered after several months of data collection during the course of the NASA-directed Kepler Mission, which ...
. Announced in 2011, it was the first definitely
rocky planet A terrestrial planet, tellurian planet, telluric planet, or rocky planet, is a planet that is composed primarily of silicate, rocks or metals. Within the Solar System, the terrestrial planets accepted by the IAU are the inner planets closest to ...
identified outside the
Solar System The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Sola ...
. The planet has a mass that is 3.33±0.49 times that of Earth's and a radius that is 1.47 times that of Earth. The planet orbits Kepler-10 at a distance of 0.01684 AU every 0.8375 days; this can be compared to the orbit and
orbital period The orbital period (also revolution period) is the amount of time a given astronomical object takes to complete one orbit around another object. In astronomy, it usually applies to planets or asteroids orbiting the Sun, moons orbiting planets ...
of planet Mercury, which circles the Sun at a distance of 0.3871 AU every 87.97 days. Because the planet orbits so closely to its star, its
eccentricity Eccentricity or eccentric may refer to: * Eccentricity (behavior), odd behavior on the part of a person, as opposed to being "normal" Mathematics, science and technology Mathematics * Off-Centre (geometry), center, in geometry * Eccentricity (g ...
is virtually zero. It, thus, has an extremely circular orbit.
Kepler-10c Kepler-10c is an Extrasolar planet, exoplanet orbiting the Stellar classification#Class G, G-type star Kepler-10, located around 608 light-years away in Draco (constellation), Draco. Its discovery was announced by the Kepler space telescope team ...
was also discovered by NASA's
Kepler Mission 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 orb ...
, the second exoplanet found to orbit Kepler-10. Radial-velocity measurements of the body initially suggested that it has a mass of 17.2±1.9 Earth masses and a radius of 2.35 Earth radii, which would have made it the largest known rocky planet . Kepler-10c would orbit Kepler-10 at a distance of 0.24 AU every 45.29 days. However, in July 2017, more careful analysis of HARPS-N and HIRES data showed that Kepler-10c was much less massive than originally thought, instead around with a mean density of 3.14 g/cm3. Instead of a primarily rocky composition, the more accurately determined mass of Kepler-10c suggests a world made almost entirely of volatiles, mainly water. A candidate third planet with an orbital period of about 102 days, given the provisional designation KOI-72.X, was identified in 2016 based on
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 a ...
s. In 2023, the presence of a third planet, Kepler-10d, was confirmed by
radial velocity The radial velocity or line-of-sight velocity of a target with respect to an observer is the rate of change of the vector displacement between the two points. It is formulated as the vector projection of the target-observer relative velocity ...
observations. It has an orbital period of 151 days and a
minimum mass In astronomy, minimum mass is the lower-bound calculated mass of observed objects such as planets, stars, binary systems, nebulae, and black holes. Minimum mass is a widely cited statistic for extrasolar planets detected by the radial velocit ...
about 13 times that of Earth.


See also

*
Kepler Mission 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 orb ...
*
List of exoplanets A list is a set of discrete items of information collected and set forth in some format for utility, entertainment, or other purposes. A list may be memorialized in any number of ways, including existing only in the mind of the list-maker, but ...


Notes


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kepler-10 G-type main-sequence stars Planetary systems with three confirmed planets Draco (constellation) 0072 Planetary transit variables