Exoplanet · gas giant
Kepler-16 b
Kepler-16 b is a gas giant orbiting the star Kepler-16. Its year lasts 229 Earth days. It was discovered in 2011 by the Transit method.
| Host star | Kepler-16 |
|---|---|
| Distance | 244.9 light-years (75.1 pc) |
| Orbital period | 229 days |
| Orbital radius | 0.705 AU |
| Eccentricity | 0.007 |
| Radius | 8.45 R⊕ · 0.754 R♃ |
| Mass | 106 M⊕ · 0.333 M♃ |
| Density | 0.964 g/cm³ |
| Surface gravity | 1.48 × Earth |
| Equilibrium temperature | 206 K (-67 °C) |
| Stellar flux received | 0.252 × Earth |
| Discovery method | Transit |
| Discovery year | 2011 |
| Discovered by | Kepler |
Habitable zone
Beyond the habitable zone: it receives only %25 of the light the Earth does, a frozen world.
Its star in the sky
In the planet's sky its star is a disc 0.49° across: 0.92 times the Sun as we see it from Earth.
In the sky
A telescope is needed to see it: its apparent magnitude is 12.27. Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 38° S. North of latitude 38° N it never sets. It stands highest at midnight in July, the best time to observe it.
Light's journey
The light you see tonight set out around the year 1781. At the speed of Voyager 1, the fastest craft leaving the Solar System (16.9 km per second), the trip would take 4.3 million years.
Data: NASA Exoplanet Archive, PSCompPars. Its look in the simulation is a rendering based on the measured radius, mass and temperature.