Kepler-7b
Kepler-7b is one of the first five exoplanets to be confirmed by NASA's Kepler spacecraft, and was confirmed in the first 33.5 days of Kepler's science operations. It orbits a star slightly hotter and significantly larger than the Sun that is expected to soon reach the end of the main sequence. Kepler-7b is a hot Jupiter that is about half the mass of Jupiter, but is nearly 1.5 times its size; at the time of its discovery, Kepler-7b was the second most diffuse planet known, surpassed only by WASP-17b. It orbits its host star every five days at a distance of approximately 0,06 AU (9.000.000 km or 5.592.340 mi). Kepler-7b was announced at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society on January 4, 2010. It is the first extrasolar planet to have a crude map of cloud coverage.
Size comparison of Kepler-7b with Jupiter, showing a rudimentary map of its atmosphere derived from telescope observations. | |
| Discovery | |
|---|---|
| Discovery date | January 4, 2010 |
| Transit (Kepler Mission) | |
| Orbital characteristics | |
| 0.06224 AU | |
| Eccentricity | 0 |
| 4.885525±0.000040 d | |
| Inclination | 86.5 |
| Star | Kepler-7 |
| Physical characteristics | |
Mean radius | 1.478+0.050 −0.051 RJ |
| Mass | 0.433+0.040 −0.041 MJ |
Mean density | 166+0.019 −0.020 kg m−3 |
| Albedo | 0.32±0.03 |
| Temperature | 1,540 K (1,270 °C; 2,310 °F) |