Kepler-56c 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 (i.e. Jupiter analogue, Jupiter analogues) but that have very short orbital periods (). The close proximity to t ...

(a class of

exoplanet An exoplanet or extrasolar planet is a planet outside the Solar System. The first confirmed detection of an exoplanet was in 1992 around a pulsar, and the first detection around a main-sequence star was in 1995. A different planet, first det ...

s) orbiting the star Kepler-56, located in the constellation Cygnus. It was discovered by 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 ...

'' telescope in October 2013. It orbits its parent star only away; at its distance, it completes an orbit once every 21.4 days. Its orbit is significantly misaligned with its parent star's equator. Further studies have revealed that a third planet, 56d, is responsible for misaligning the orbits of both planets. Both

Kepler-56b Kepler-56b (KOI-1241.02) is a hot Neptune—a class of exoplanets—located roughly away. It is somewhat larger than Neptune and orbits its parent star Kepler-56 and was discovered in 2013 by the Kepler Space Telescope. Planetary orbit Kepler-5 ...

and Kepler-56c will be devoured by their parent star in about 130 and 155 million years, respectively. Further research shows that it will have its atmosphere boiled away by intense

heat In thermodynamics, heat is energy in transfer between a thermodynamic system and its surroundings by such mechanisms as thermal conduction, electromagnetic radiation, and friction, which are microscopic in nature, involving sub-atomic, ato ...

from the

star A star is a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by Self-gravitation, self-gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night sk ...

, and it will be stretched by the strengthening stellar

tide Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another. Tide tables ...

References

External links

Kepler-56c
at NASA's website{{Extrasolar-planet-stub Exoplanets discovered by the Kepler space telescope Exoplanets discovered in 2013 Cygnus (constellation) Transiting exoplanets Hot Jupiters Giant planets 2013 in outer space