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Exoplanet · super-Earth

Kepler-20 b

Kepler-20 b is a super-Earth orbiting the star Kepler-20. Its year lasts 3.7 Earth days. It was discovered in 2011 by the Transit method.

Host starKepler-20
Distance921.6 light-years (282.6 pc)
Orbital period3.7 days
Orbital radius0.0457 AU
Eccentricity0.083
Radius1.77 R⊕ · 0.158 R♃
Mass9.7 M⊕ · 0.0305 M♃
Density9.4 g/cm³
Surface gravity3.09 × Earth
Equilibrium temperature1,187 K (914 °C)
Stellar flux received331 × Earth
Discovery methodTransit
Discovery year2011
Discovered byKepler

Habitable zone

Inside the inner edge of the habitable zone: it receives 331 times the light the Earth does, too hot to keep liquid water on its surface.

Its star in the sky

In the planet's sky its star is a disc 11° across: 21 times the Sun as we see it from Earth.

In the sky

A telescope is needed to see it: its apparent magnitude is 12.61. Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 48° S. North of latitude 48° 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 1104. At the speed of Voyager 1, the fastest craft leaving the Solar System (16.9 km per second), the trip would take 16 million years.

Planets in the same system

Open in the simulation

Data: NASA Exoplanet Archive, PSCompPars. Its look in the simulation is a rendering based on the measured radius, mass and temperature.