Kepler-62

Kepler-62

Location of Kepler-62 (circled in red)
Observation data Epoch J2000      Equinox J2000
Constellation	Lyra
Right ascension	18h 52m 51.0519s[1]
Declination	+45° 20′ 59.400″[1]
Apparent magnitude (V)	13.75[2]
Characteristics
Evolutionary stage	Main sequence
Spectral type	K2V[2]
B−V color index	0.832[2]
Astrometry
Proper motion (μ)	RA: −25.153±0.026[1] mas/yr Dec.: −31.170±0.027[1] mas/yr
Parallax (π)	3.2947 ± 0.0134[1] mas
Distance	990 ± 4 ly (304 ± 1 pc)
Details
Mass	0.69 ± 0.02[2] M☉
Radius	0.64 ± 0.02[2] R☉
Luminosity	0.21 ± 0.02[2] L☉
Surface gravity (log g)	4.68 ± 0.04[2] cgs
Temperature	4925 ± 70[2] K
Metallicity [Fe/H]	−0.37 ± 0.04[2] dex
Rotation	39.3 ± 0.6 days[2]
Rotational velocity (v sin i)	0.4 ± 0.5[2] km/s
Age	7 ± 4[2] Gyr
Other designations
KIC 9002278, KOI-701
Database references
SIMBAD	data
Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia	data

Kepler-62 is a K-type main sequence star cooler and smaller than the Sun, located roughly 990 light years from Earth in the constellation Lyra. It resides within the field of vision of the Kepler spacecraft, the satellite that NASA's Kepler Mission used to detect planets that may be transiting their stars. On April 18, 2013 it was announced that the star has five planets, two of which, Kepler-62e and Kepler-62f are within the star's habitable zone.^[2][3] The outermost, Kepler-62f, is likely a rocky planet.^[2]

Nomenclature and history[]

The Kepler Space Telescope search volume, in the context of the Milky Way Galaxy.

Prior to Kepler observation, Kepler-62 had the 2MASS catalogue number 2MASS J18525105+4520595. In the Kepler Input Catalog it has the designation of KIC 9002278, and when it was found to have transiting planet candidates it was given the Kepler object of interest number of KOI-701.

Planetary candidates were detected around the star by NASA's Kepler Mission, a mission tasked with discovering planets in transit around their stars. The transit method that Kepler uses involves detecting dips in brightness in stars. These dips in brightness can be interpreted as planets whose orbits pass in front of their stars from the perspective of Earth, although other phenomenon can also be responsible which is why the term planetary candidate is used.^[4]

Following the acceptance of the discovery paper, the Kepler team provided an additional moniker for the system of "Kepler-62".^[5] The discoverers referred to the star as Kepler-62, which is the normal procedure for naming the exoplanets discovered by the spacecraft.^[2] Hence, this is the name used by the public to refer to the star and its planets.

Candidate planets that are associated with stars studied by the Kepler Mission are assigned the designations ".01", ".02", ".03", ".04", ".05" etc. after the star's name, in the order of discovery.^[6] If planet candidates are detected simultaneously, then the ordering follows the order of orbital periods from shortest to longest.^[6] Following these rules, the first three candidate planets were detected simultaneously, with orbital periods of 18.16406, 5.714932, and 122.3874 days, respectively, in the 2011 data release,^[2] with another two candidate planets, with orbital periods of 267.29 and 12.4417 days, respectively, being detected in a 2012 data release by the Kepler spacecraft.^[2]

The designations b, c, d, e, and f derive from the order of discovery. The designation of b is given to the first planet orbiting a given star, followed by the other lowercase letters of the alphabet.^[7] In the case of Kepler-62, all of the known planets in the system were announced at one time, so b is applied to the closest planet to the star and f to the farthest.^[2] The name Kepler-62 derives directly from the fact that the star is the catalogued 62nd star discovered by Kepler to have confirmed planets.

Stellar characteristics[]

Kepler-62 is a K-type main sequence star that is approximately 69% the mass of and 64% the radius of the Sun. It has a temperature of 4925 K and is 7 billion years old.^[2] In comparison, the Sun is about 4.6 billion years old^[8] and has a temperature of 5778 K.^[9]

The star is somewhat poor in metals, with a metallicity ([Fe/H]) of about –0.37, or about 42% of the amount of iron and other heavier metals found in the Sun, which is similar to that of Kepler-442.^[2] The star's luminosity is typical for a star like Kepler-62, with a luminosity of around 21% of that of the solar luminosity.^[2]

The star's apparent magnitude, or how bright it appears from Earth's perspective, is 13.75. Therefore, it is too dim to be seen with the naked eye.

Planetary system[]