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Kepler-10c
Exoplanet in the constellation Draco / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Kepler-10c is an exoplanet orbiting the G-type star[1] Kepler-10, located around 608 light-years away in Draco. Its discovery was announced by Kepler in May 2011, although it had been seen as a planetary candidate since January 2011, when Kepler-10b was discovered. The team confirmed the observation using data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and a technique called BLENDER that ruled out most false positives. Kepler-10c was the third transiting planet to be confirmed statistically (based on probability rather than actual observation), after Kepler-9d and Kepler-11g. The Kepler team considers the statistical method that led to the discovery of Kepler-10c as what will be necessary to confirm many planets in Kepler's field of view.[1]
![]() Size comparison of Kepler-10c with Earth and Neptune | |
Discovery[1] | |
---|---|
Discovery date | Announced May 23, 2011[2] |
Transit (Kepler Mission)[2] | |
Orbital characteristics | |
0.2407+0.0044 −0.0053[3] AU | |
45.29485+0.00065 −0.00076[3] d | |
Inclination | 89.65+0.09 −0.12[3] |
Star | Kepler-10[4] |
Physical characteristics | |
2.35+0.09 −0.04[5] R🜨 | |
Mass | 7.37 +1.32 −1.19[6] ME |
Mean density | 3.14 +0.63 −0.55[6] g cm−3 |
Temperature | Teq: 584 +54 −17[5] K |
Kepler-10c orbits its host star every forty-five days at a quarter of the average distance between the Sun and Earth. Initial observations showed that it has a radius more than double that of Earth, and suggested a higher density, suggesting a mainly rocky composition with around 5–20% ices by mass.[5][1][7] For comparison, the Earth's oceans represent only 0.02% of our planet's mass,[8] with an additional amount potentially a few times this stored in the mantle.[9] However, in 2017, more careful analysis using both HARPS and HIRES data revealed that Kepler-10c is not a large terrestrial planet, but instead a typical volatile-rich planet of about seven Earth masses.[10][6]