About this world
Kepler-68 b is a sub-Neptune orbiting Kepler-68, a yellow, Sun-like star 470 light-years from Earth. It is about 2.4 times the size of Earth and holds 8 Earth masses. It completes an orbit every 5.4 days at 0.061 AU from its star, closer than Mercury is to the Sun.
Its equilibrium temperature is about 1,275 K (1,002 °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 2013 by transit with Kepler. A planet crosses its star and dims it by a tiny, periodic fraction. Kepler-68 has 4 known planets; the others are Kepler-68 c, Kepler-68 d and Kepler-68 e.