Kepler-102 is a star away in the
constellation
A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms Asterism (astronomy), a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object.
The first constellati ...
of
Lyra
, from ; pronounced: ) is a small constellation. It is one of the 48 listed by the 2nd century astronomer Ptolemy, and is one of the modern 88 constellations recognized by the International Astronomical Union. Lyra was often represented on star ...
. Kepler-102 is less luminous than 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 ...
. The star system does not contain any observable amount of dust. Kepler-102 is suspected to be orbited by a binary consisting of two red dwarf stars, at projected separations of 591 and 627
AU.
Planetary system
In January 2014, a system of five planets around the star was announced, three of them being smaller than Earth. While 3 of the transit signals were discovered during the first year of the
Kepler
Johannes Kepler (27 December 1571 – 15 November 1630) was a German astronomer, mathematician, astrologer, natural philosopher and writer on music. He is a key figure in the 17th-century Scientific Revolution, best known for his laws of p ...
mission, their small size made them hard to confirm as possibilities of these being false positives were needed to be removed. Later, two other signals were detected. Follow-up radial velocity data helped to determine the mass of the two largest planets (Kepler-102d and Kepler-102e).
By 2017, the search for additional planets utilizing the
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 ...
method had yielded zero results, although the presence of planets with semimajor axis beyond 10
AU cannot be excluded.
See also
*
55 Cancri
55 Cancri is a binary star system located 41 light-years away from the Sun in the zodiac constellation of Cancer. It has the Bayer designation Rho1 Cancri (ρ1 Cancri); ''55 Cancri'' is the Flamsteed designation (abbrev ...
*
Kepler-37
Kepler-37, also known as UGA-1785, is a G-type main-sequence star located in the constellation Lyra from Earth. It is host to exoplanets Kepler-37b, Kepler-37c, Kepler-37d and possibly Kepler-37e, all of which orbit very close to it. ...
*
Kepler-20
Kepler-20 is a star about from Earth in the constellation Lyra with a system of at least five, and possibly six, known planets. The apparent magnitude of this star is 12.51, so it cannot be seen with the unaided eye. Viewing it requires ...
*
Kepler-33
Kepler-33 is a star about in the constellation of Cygnus, with a system of five known planets. Having just begun to evolve off from the main sequence, its radius and mass are difficult to ascertain, although data available in 2020 shows ...
References
{{Stars of Lyra
Lyra
82
Planetary systems with five confirmed planets
K-type main-sequence stars
Planetary transit variables
J18455585+4712289