Kepler-22b: A 2.4 EARTH-RADIUS PLANET IN THE HABITABLE ZONE OF A SUN-LIKE STAR

By William J. Borucki, D. Koch, N. Batalha, S. Bryson, J. Rowe, F. Fressin, G. Torres, Douglas A. Caldwell, J. Christensen-Dalsgaard, W. Cochran and 74 more. Astrophysical Journal, 2011

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A search of the time-series photometry from NASA's Kepler spacecraft reveals a transiting planet candidate orbiting the 11th magnitude G5 dwarf KIC 10593626 with a period of 290 days. The characteristics of the host star are well constrained by high-resolution spectroscopy combined with an asteroseismic analysis of the Kepler photometry, leading to an estimated mass and radius of 0.970 ± 0.060 M☉ and 0.979 ± 0.020 R☉. The depth of 492 ± 10 ppm for the three observed transits yields a radius of 2.38 ± 0.13 Re for the planet. The system passes a battery of tests for false positives, including reconnaissance spectroscopy, high-resolution imaging, and centroid motion. A full BLENDER analysis provides further validation of the planet interpretation by showing that contamination of the target by an eclipsing system would rarely mimic the observed shape of the transits. The final validation of the planet is provided by 16 radial velocities (RVs) obtained with the High Resolution Echelle Spectrometer on Keck I over a one-year span. Although the velocities do not lead to a reliable orbit and mass determination, they are able to constrain the mass to a 3σ upper limit of 124 M⊕, safely in the regime of planetary masses, thus earning the designation Kepler-22b. The radiative equilibrium temperature is 262 K for a planet in Kepler-22b's orbit. Although there is no evidence that Kepler-22b is a rocky planet, it is the first confirmed planet with a measured radius to orbit in the habitable zone of any star other than the Sun.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics

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Citations in the corpus

• Kepler Presearch Data Conditioning I—Architecture and Algorithms for Error Correction in Kepler Light Curves (2012, methodology): “…in planet detection (Borucki et al. 2010; Holman et al. 2010; Doyle et al. 2011; Fressin et al. 2011; Lissauer et al. 2011; Welsh et al. 2012; Borucki et al. 2012) and stellar astrophysics (Meibom et al. 2011; Beck et al. 2011; Stello et al. 2011; Chaplin et al. 2011) based on Kepler data.”
• TERRESTRIAL PLANET OCCURRENCE RATES FOR THE KEPLER GK DWARF SAMPLE (2015, methodology): “…assume the theoretical performance of the Transiting Planet Search algorithm (TPS Jenkins 2002) with a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) threshold of 7.1 (Borucki et al. 2011b), designate a higher SNR level where the planet sample is close to 100% complete 2 (Catanzarite & Shao 2011; Youdin 2011; Howard…”
• LOW FALSE POSITIVE RATE OF KEPLER CANDIDATES ESTIMATED FROM A COMBINATION OF SPITZER AND FOLLOW-UP OBSERVATIONS (2015, unknown): “…(Buchhave et al. 2011), Kepler-18b,c (Cochran et al. 2011), Kepler19b Ballard et al. (2011), Kepler-20b,c Gautier et al. (2012), Kepler-22b (Borucki et al. 2012), Kepler25b,c (Steffen et al. 2012), Kepler-26c (Steffen et al. 2012), Kepler-32b (Fabrycky et al. 2012), Kepler37b (Barclay et…”
• MOST 1.6 EARTH-RADIUS PLANETS ARE NOT ROCKY (2014, background): “…census of transiting planets with measured masses contains information about the underlying composition distribution of planets and about the masses of the more than 3000 Kepler transiting planet candidates (Borucki et al. 2011; Batalha et al. 2013) that currently lack dynamical confirmation.”
• AN ANCIENT EXTRASOLAR SYSTEM WITH FIVE SUB-EARTH-SIZE PLANETS (2015, methodology): “…planet discoveries where asteroseismology was used to constrain the properties of the host star (Batalha et al. 2011; Barclay et al. 2012, 2013a,b; Borucki et al. 2012; Carter et al. 2012; Howell et al. 2012; Chaplin et al. 2013a; Gilliland et al. 2013; Huber et al. 2013b; Ballard et al. 2014;…”
• Parametrizing the exoplanet eccentricity distribution with the beta distribution. (2013, background): “…phase gaps (which can lead to spurious eccentricities), non-detection radial velocities used to place upper limits on MP sin i (e.g. Kepler-22b; Borucki et al. 2012), blend analyses of transits requiring some eccentricity prior (Fressin et al. 2011) and fitting transit light curves with an…”
• THE KEPLER FOLLOW-UP OBSERVATION PROGRAM. I. A CATALOG OF COMPANIONS TO KEPLER STARS FROM HIGH-RESOLUTION IMAGING (2016, background): “…and Keck) have already been published in the liter- ature (Torres et al. 2011; Batalha et al. 2011; Fortney et al. 2011; Ballard et al. 2011, 2013; Borucki et al. 2012, 2013; Gautier et al. 2012; Adams et al. 2012; Marcy et al. 2014; Everett et al. 2015; Torres et al. 2015; Teske et al. 2015);…”
• A Detailed Model Grid for Solid Planets from 0.1 through 100 Earth Masses (2013, unknown): “, Kepler-22b (R = 2.38± 0.13R⊕ (Borucki et al. 2012), The 1-σ upper limit for mass is 36M⊕ for an eccentric orbit (or 27M⊕, for circular orbit)), CoRoT-7b (M = 7.42 ± 1.21M⊕, R = 1.58± 0.1R⊕ (Hatzes et al. 2011; Leger et al. 2009; Queloz et al. 2009)), 55 Cancri e (M = 8.63± 0.35M⊕, R = 2.00±…”
• Asteroseismology of Solar-Type and Red-Giant Stars (2013, methodology): “Particularly noteworthy was Kepler-22b (Borucki et al. 2012), Kepler ’s first validated planet lying in the habitable zone of its host star.”
• A REVISED ESTIMATE OF THE OCCURRENCE RATE OF TERRESTRIAL PLANETS IN THE HABITABLE ZONES AROUND KEPLER M-DWARFS (2013, background): “…in the habitable zone (HZ) of their parent star (Udry et al. 2007; Vogt et al. 2010; Pepe et al. 2011a; Borucki et al. 2011; Bonfils et al. 2011; Borucki et al. 2012; Vogt et al. 2012; Tuomi et al. 2012b; Anglada-Escudé et al. 2012) and it is expected that this number will greatly increase…”
• FALSE POSITIVE PROBABILITIES FOR ALL KEPLER OBJECTS OF INTEREST: 1284 NEWLY VALIDATED PLANETS AND 428 LIKELY FALSE POSITIVES (2016, methodology): “The BLENDER method pioneered this approach and has validated many Kepler candidates (e.g., Borucki et al. 2012; Kipping et al. 2014; Torres et al. 2015).”
• HABITABLE ZONES AROUND MAIN-SEQUENCE STARS: NEW ESTIMATES (2013, background): “Several potential HZ planet candidates have already been detected, (Udry et al. 2007; Pepe et al. 2011a; Borucki et al. 2011; Bonfils et al. 2011; Borucki et al. 2012; Vogt et al. 2012; Tuomi et al. 2012a,b) and it is expected that this number will greatly increase as time passes (Batalha et al.…”
• HABITABLE ZONES AROUND MAIN-SEQUENCE STARS: DEPENDENCE ON PLANETARY MASS (2014, background): “Recent observational surveys have discovered several potential habitable zone (HZ) planet candidates (Udry et al. 2007; Vogt et al. 2010; Pepe et al. 2011a; Borucki et al. 2011; Bonfils et al. 2011; Borucki et al. 2012; Vogt et al. 2012; ?”
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