DISCOVERY AND VALIDATION OF Kepler-452b: A 1.6 R phi SUPER EARTH EXOPLANET IN THE HABITABLE ZONE OF A G2 STAR

TY - JOUR

T1 - DISCOVERY AND VALIDATION OF Kepler-452b

T2 - A 1.6 R phi SUPER EARTH EXOPLANET IN THE HABITABLE ZONE OF A G2 STAR

AU - Jenkins, Jon M.

AU - Twicken, Joseph D.

AU - Batalha, Natalie M.

AU - Caldwell, Douglas A.

AU - Cochran, William D.

AU - Endl, Michael

AU - Latham, David W.

AU - Esquerdo, Gilbert A.

AU - Seader, Shawn

AU - Bieryla, Allyson

AU - Petigura, Erik

AU - Ciardi, David R.

AU - Marcy, Geoffrey W.

AU - Isaacson, Howard

AU - Huber, Daniel

AU - Rowe, Jason F.

AU - Torres, Guillermo

AU - Bryson, Stephen T.

AU - Buchhave, Lars

AU - Ramirez, Ivan

AU - Wolfgang, Angie

AU - Li, Jie

AU - Campbell, Jennifer R.

AU - Tenenbaum, Peter

AU - Sanderfer, Dwight

AU - Henze, Christopher E.

AU - Catanzarite, Joseph H.

AU - Gilliland, Ronald L.

AU - Borucki, William J.

PY - 2015/8

Y1 - 2015/8

N2 - We report on the discovery and validation of Kepler-452b, a transiting planet identified by a search through the 4 years of data collected by NASA's Kepler Mission. This possibly rocky 1.63(-0.20)(+0.23) R-circle plus every 384.843 (+0.007)(-0.012) days, the longest orbital period for a small (R-P <2 R-circle plus) transiting exoplanet to date. The likelihood that this planet has a rocky composition lies between 49% and 62%. The star has an effective temperature of 5757 +/- 85 K and a log g of 4.32 +/- 0.09. At a mean orbital separation of 1.046 (-0.015) (+0.019) AU, this small planet is well within the optimistic habitable zone of its star (recent Venus/early Mars), experiencing only 10% more flux than Earth receives from the Sun today, and slightly outside the conservative habitable zone (runaway greenhouse/maximum greenhouse). The star is slightly larger and older than the Sun, with a present radius of 1.11 (-0.09) (+0.15) R-circle dot and an estimated age of similar to 6 Gyr. Thus, Kepler-452b has likely always been in the habitable zone and should remain there for another similar to 3 Gyr.

AB - We report on the discovery and validation of Kepler-452b, a transiting planet identified by a search through the 4 years of data collected by NASA's Kepler Mission. This possibly rocky 1.63(-0.20)(+0.23) R-circle plus every 384.843 (+0.007)(-0.012) days, the longest orbital period for a small (R-P <2 R-circle plus) transiting exoplanet to date. The likelihood that this planet has a rocky composition lies between 49% and 62%. The star has an effective temperature of 5757 +/- 85 K and a log g of 4.32 +/- 0.09. At a mean orbital separation of 1.046 (-0.015) (+0.019) AU, this small planet is well within the optimistic habitable zone of its star (recent Venus/early Mars), experiencing only 10% more flux than Earth receives from the Sun today, and slightly outside the conservative habitable zone (runaway greenhouse/maximum greenhouse). The star is slightly larger and older than the Sun, with a present radius of 1.11 (-0.09) (+0.15) R-circle dot and an estimated age of similar to 6 Gyr. Thus, Kepler-452b has likely always been in the habitable zone and should remain there for another similar to 3 Gyr.

KW - methods: statistical

KW - planets and satellites: detection

KW - stars: fundamental parameters

KW - stars: individual (Kepler-452b, KIC 8311864, KOI7016.01)

KW - POTENTIAL TRANSIT SIGNALS

KW - FALSE POSITIVES

KW - MISSION DATA

KW - SOPHIE VELOCIMETRY

KW - EXTRASOLAR PLANETS

KW - BLEND SCENARIOS

KW - Y-2 ISOCHRONES

KW - HARPS SEARCH

KW - MILKY-WAY

KW - SYSTEM

U2 - 10.1088/0004-6256/150/2/56

DO - 10.1088/0004-6256/150/2/56

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0004-6256

VL - 150

JO - Astronomical Journal

JF - Astronomical Journal

IS - 2

M1 - 56

ER -