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Transit · 2011

Kepler-18 c

This world receives 126× the starlight Earth does; a year lasts 7.64 days; the light you see left it 1.41 thousand years ago.

Opens the PlanetHunt visor at this world · WebGL
Size
5.5 × Earth 
A year
7.64 days0.0752 AU
Temperature
626 °C899 K

About this world

Kepler-18 c is a Neptune-like planet orbiting Kepler-18, a yellow, Sun-like star 1.41 thousand light-years from Earth. It is about 5.5 times the size of Earth and holds 17 Earth masses. It completes an orbit every 7.64 days at 0.075 AU from its star, closer than Mercury is to the Sun.

Its equilibrium temperature is about 899 K (626 °C): far too hot for liquid water on its surface. At its size it almost certainly keeps a deep envelope of hydrogen and helium. Its atmosphere has already been studied: 2 spectroscopic observations.

It was discovered in 2011 by transit with Kepler. A planet crosses its star and dims it by a tiny, periodic fraction. Kepler-18 has 3 known planets; the others are Kepler-18 b and Kepler-18 d.

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