Kepler-11g

Kepler-11g
Size comparison of Kepler-11g (gray) with Neptune.
Discovery
Discovery date2 February 2011[1]
Transit (Kepler Mission)[1]
Orbital characteristics
0.462 AU (69,100,000 km)[2]
118.37774[2] d
Inclination89.8[2]
StarKepler-11 (KOI-157)
Physical characteristics
3.66 (± 0.35)[3] R🜨
Mass<25[4] ME
Temperature400 K (127 °C; 260 °F)[2]

Kepler-11g is an exoplanet discovered in the orbit of the sunlike star Kepler-11 by the Kepler space telescope, a NASA satellite tasked with searching for terrestrial planets. Kepler-11g is the outermost of the star's six planets. The planet orbits at a distance of nearly half the mean distance between Earth and the Sun. It completes an orbit every 118 days, placing it much further from its star than the system's inner five planets. Its estimated radius is a little over three times that of Earth, i.e. comparable to Neptune's size. Kepler-11g's distance from the inner planets made its confirmation more difficult than that of the inner planets, as scientists had to work to exhaustively disprove all reasonable alternatives before Kepler-11g could be confirmed.[3] The planet's discovery, along with that of the other Kepler-11 planets, was announced on February 2, 2011. According to NASA, the Kepler-11 planets form the flattest and most compact system yet discovered.[5]

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  3. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Lissauer2011 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference lissauer_2013 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference NASAannounce was invoked but never defined (see the help page).