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List of exoplanets discovered by the Kepler space telescope
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The list of exoplanets detected by the Kepler space telescope contains bodies with a wide variety of properties, with significant ranges in orbital distances, masses, radii, composition, habitability, and host star type. As of June 16 2023, the Kepler space telescope and its follow-up observations have detected 2,778 planets, including hot Jupiters, super-Earths, circumbinary planets, and planets located in the circumstellar habitable zones of their host stars.[1][2][3][4] Kepler has detected over 3,601 unconfirmed planet candidates[5][6] and 2,165 eclipsing binary stars.[6]
In addition to detecting planets itself, Kepler has also uncovered the properties of three previously known extrasolar planets. Public Kepler data has also been used by groups independent of NASA, such as the Planet Hunters citizen-science project, to detect several planets orbiting stars collectively known as Kepler Objects of Interest.[7][8][9][10][11]
Kepler, launched on March 7, 2009, was designed to observe a fixed portion of the sky in visible light and measure the light curves of the various stars in its field of view, looking for planets crossing in front of their host stars via the transit method.[12][13] Since the launch of the spacecraft, though, both the Kepler team at NASA and independent researchers have found new ways of detecting planets, including the use of the transit timing variation method and relativistic beaming.[14] In addition, gravitational microlensing has been proposed as a method of using Kepler to detect compact objects, such as white dwarfs, neutron stars, and black holes.[13] Kepler has also measured the reflected light from some planets already known, discovering planets undetectable with the transit method[15] as well as improving knowledge of the characteristics of planets already discovered.[16]
On February 26, 2014, NASA announced the discovery of 715 newly verified exoplanets around 305 stars by the Kepler Space Telescope. The exoplanets were found using a statistical technique called "verification by multiplicity". 95% of the discovered exoplanets were smaller than Neptune and four, including Kepler-296f, were less than 2 1/2 the size of Earth and were in habitable zones where surface temperatures are suitable for liquid water.[17][18][19]
-
Bar graph of Exoplanets by size - the gold bars represent Kepler's latest newly verified exoplanets (May 10, 2016). -
Bar graph of Exoplanet Discoveries - gold bar displays new planets "verified by multiplicity" (May 10, 2016).
On May 10, 2016, NASA announced that the Kepler mission has verified 1,284 new planets.[20] Based on some of the planet's sizes, about 550 could potentially be rocky planets. Nine of these orbit in their stars' habitable zone.[20]
Lists
[edit]All exoplanets discovered lie in one of the three northern constellations of Cygnus, Lyra and Draco, which belong to Kepler's photometer's field of view.
- List of exoplanets discovered by the Kepler space telescope: 1–500
- List of exoplanets discovered by the Kepler space telescope: 501–1000
- List of exoplanets discovered by the Kepler space telescope: 1001–1500
- List of exoplanets discovered by the Kepler space telescope: 1501–2000
- List of exoplanets discovered by the Kepler space telescope: 2001–2500
See also
[edit]References
[edit]Footnotes
Citations
- ^ Exoplanet and Candidate Statistics. Confirmed Planets Discovered by Kepler, exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech
- ^ NASA Retires Kepler Space Telescope, jpl.nasa.gov, Oct 30, 2018
- ^ Clavin, Whitney; Chou, Felicia; Johnson, Michele (6 January 2015). "NASA's Kepler Marks 1,000th Exoplanet Discovery, Uncovers More Small Worlds in Habitable Zones". NASA. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
- ^ "'Alien Earth' is among eight new far-off planets". BBC. 7 January 2015. Retrieved 7 January 2015.
- ^ Wall, Mike (5 September 2013). "NASA Exoplanet archive". TechMediaNetwork. Retrieved 15 June 2013.
- ^ a b "NASA - Kepler". Archived from the original on 5 November 2013. Retrieved 26 February 2014.
- ^ Schneider, Jean. "Notes for star Kepler-9". Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia. Archived from the original on 2011-01-03. Retrieved 2012-01-31.
- ^ Schneider, Jean. "Kepler-41b". Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia. Archived from the original on 9 October 2020. Retrieved 21 December 2011.
- ^ "Kepler-43b". Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia. Retrieved 8 February 2017.
- ^ "Kepler-44b". Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia. Retrieved 8 February 2017.
- ^ "Kepler-46b". Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia. Retrieved 8 February 2017.
- ^ BBC Staff (7 March 2009). "Nasa launches Earth hunter probe". BBC News. Retrieved 2009-03-14.
- ^ a b Sahu, K. C.; Gilliland, R. L. (2003). "Near‐Field Microlensing and Its Effects on Stellar Transit Observations byKepler". The Astrophysical Journal. 584 (2): 1042–1052. arXiv:astro-ph/0210554. Bibcode:2003ApJ...584.1042S. doi:10.1086/345776. S2CID 13043236.
- ^ Moskowitz, Clara (May 13, 2013). "'Einstein's Planet': New Alien World Revealed by Relativity". Space.com. TechMediaNetwork. Retrieved June 15, 2013.
- ^ Charpinet, S.; Fontaine, G.; Brassard, P.; Green, EM; Van Grootel, V.; Randall, SK; Silvotti, R.; Baran, AS; Østensen, RH; Kawaler, SD; et al. (2011). "A compact system of small planets around a former red-giant star". Nature. 480 (7378): 496–499. Bibcode:2011Natur.480..496C. doi:10.1038/nature10631. PMID 22193103. S2CID 2213885.
- ^ Borucki, W.J.; Koch, D.; Jenkins, J.; Sasselov, D.; Gilliland, R.; Batalha, N.; Latham, D. W.; Caldwell, D.; et al. (2009). "Kepler's Optical Phase Curve of the Exoplanet HAT-P-7b". Science. 325 (5941): 709. Bibcode:2009Sci...325..709B. doi:10.1126/science.1178312. PMID 19661420. S2CID 206522122.
- ^ Johnson, Michele; Harrington, J.D. (February 26, 2014). "NASA's Kepler Mission Announces a Planet Bonanza, 715 New Worlds". NASA. Retrieved February 26, 2014.
- ^ Wall, Mike (26 February 2014). "Population of Known Alien Planets Nearly Doubles as NASA Discovers 715 New Worlds". Space.com. Retrieved 26 February 2014.
- ^ "Kepler telescope bags huge haul of planets". Retrieved 27 February 2014.
- ^ a b "NASA's Kepler Mission Announces Largest Collection of Planets Ever Discovered". NASA. NASA News. May 10, 2016. Retrieved 2016-05-11.
External links
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List of exoplanets discovered by the Kepler space telescope
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Kepler Mission Background
Mission Launch and Operations
The Kepler space telescope was launched on March 7, 2009, at 03:49:57 UTC (10:49 p.m. EST on March 6), from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida aboard a Delta II 7925-10L rocket.[5] This launch placed the spacecraft into an initial low Earth orbit before it transitioned to its operational Earth-trailing heliocentric orbit, with a period of approximately 372 days and trailing Earth by about 15 degrees to ensure thermal stability and uninterrupted pointing toward its target field without interference from the Sun, Earth, or Moon.[6][7] The spacecraft's primary mission, designed to last 3.5 years from May 2009 to November 2012, was extended through 2013 but faced challenges from reaction wheel failures; the second of its four reaction wheels malfunctioned in May 2013, ending the prime phase after 17 quarters of observations (Quarters 0-17).[2] To repurpose the telescope, NASA initiated the K2 extension in May 2014, using the remaining wheels and solar radiation pressure from the spacecraft's solar panels—augmented by hydrazine fuel thrusters for fine adjustments—to maintain pointing stability along the ecliptic plane.[2] The K2 phase conducted 19 observing campaigns over roughly three months each, continuing until fuel depletion on October 30, 2018, after which the spacecraft was placed in a safe heliocentric orbit.[2] Kepler's hardware centered on a Schmidt telescope with a 0.95-meter entrance pupil aperture and a 1.4-meter primary mirror, feeding light to a photometer array of 42 charge-coupled devices (CCDs) covering a 115-square-degree field of view in the constellations Cygnus and Lyra.[6][8] During operations, the telescope continuously monitored the brightness of approximately 150,000 stars, detecting periodic dips that could indicate planetary transits, with data downlinked every three months in 29-day quarters to minimize interruptions.[2] This setup enabled high-precision photometry, achieving relative photometric precision better than 30 parts per million for a 12th-magnitude star over six hours of integration.[6]Primary Scientific Objectives
The primary scientific objective of the Kepler mission was to determine the frequency of Earth-sized planets orbiting Sun-like stars within their habitable zones through statistical analysis of planetary transit occurrences. This involved surveying a fixed field of view in the constellations Cygnus, Lyra, and Draco to detect periodic dips in stellar brightness caused by transiting exoplanets, thereby estimating the occurrence rate of terrestrial planets capable of supporting liquid water.[5][9] Secondary objectives encompassed measuring the sizes, orbital periods, and stellar properties of discovered exoplanets to characterize their diversity, as well as investigating eclipsing binaries, variable stars, and asteroseismology to probe stellar interiors and dynamics. These efforts leveraged the mission's high-precision photometry to identify multi-planet systems and study phenomena like stellar oscillations, providing insights into star-planet interactions. The mission prioritized FGK dwarf stars for their relevance to habitability studies, observing approximately 150,000 such targets to maximize the sample of Sun-like hosts.[5][9][10] Expected outcomes included deriving an estimate of η⊕ (eta-Earth), defined as the fraction of stars hosting rocky, Earth-sized planets in the habitable zone, which would inform the prevalence of potentially habitable worlds across the galaxy. Kepler's data ultimately contributed to revised estimates suggesting billions of such planets in the Milky Way, enhancing models of planetary formation and evolution.[9][10] On a broader scale, the mission revolutionized the understanding of planetary systems' diversity and galactic prevalence by revealing a wide array of exoplanet architectures, from compact multi-planet configurations to circumbinary orbits, thus laying foundational statistical frameworks for subsequent surveys.[5][10]Detection and Confirmation Methods
Transit Photometry Technique
The transit photometry technique employed by the Kepler space telescope detects exoplanets by measuring periodic diminutions in the brightness of a host star caused by a planet passing directly between the star and the observer, an event known as a transit.[2] This method relies on the geometric alignment where the orbital plane of the planet is nearly edge-on to the line of sight, allowing the planet to occult a portion of the stellar disk and block a fraction of the emitted light. The resulting light curve—a plot of the star's brightness over time—exhibits characteristic shallow dips that repeat with the planet's orbital period, enabling the identification of transiting bodies.[11] From the light curve, several key parameters of the exoplanet system can be derived through detailed modeling. The transit depth , defined as the fractional decrease in flux, provides the squared ratio of the planet's radius to the star's radius : , assuming a uniform stellar disk and negligible limb darkening in first approximation. The orbital period is determined from the time interval between successive transit midpoints, while the transit duration and shape yield constraints on the orbital inclination , which must be close to 90 degrees for the transit to be observable.[11] Kepler's photometric analysis pipeline processed high-cadence observations—typically every 29.4 minutes for long-cadence mode—to fit these models, achieving precision sufficient to resolve shallow transits down to approximately 0.01% (100 parts per million) in depth for Earth-sized planets around Sun-like stars.[11] To mitigate false positives, such as those from eclipsing binary stars or instrumental artifacts, Kepler utilized multi-quarter observations spanning up to four years, confirming the periodicity and stability of transit signals across multiple orbital cycles.[11] Centroid analysis of the light curves further distinguished true planetary transits from background events by detecting sub-pixel shifts in the photocenter, rejecting about 70% of false positives like unresolved eclipsing binaries.[11] This rigorous approach ensured high reliability in candidate selection. Kepler's sensitivity spanned a wide range of exoplanet types, from hot Jupiters with deep transits (around 1% depth) to super-Earths and smaller terrestrial worlds, across host stars from late-type dwarfs to giants, thanks to its photometric stability of better than 20 parts per million over 6.5-hour integrations for mid-brightness targets.[11] Early results demonstrated detections of diverse systems, including multi-planet configurations like Kepler-9 and Kepler-11, highlighting the method's capability to probe planetary architectures beyond our solar system.[2]Candidate Validation and Confirmation Processes
The Kepler Input Catalog (KIC) served as the foundational dataset for target selection and initial characterization of over 150,000 stars in the Kepler field of view, providing estimates of stellar parameters such as effective temperature, surface gravity, radius, and metallicity derived from multi-band photometry and available spectroscopy. These parameters were essential for assessing the plausibility of transit signals and prioritizing follow-up observations, though later refinements using Gaia data improved accuracy for many targets.[12] Following the detection of potential transit signals, the Kepler pipeline generated Threshold Crossing Events (TCEs), which represent sequences of flux dips exceeding a detection threshold, typically identified via the Box-fitting Least Squares (BLS) algorithm to search for periodic signals in the light curves.[13] TCEs underwent initial vetting through automated checks for transit consistency, including centroid motion and shape analysis, to filter out instrumental artifacts before advancing to candidate status as Kepler Objects of Interest (KOIs).[14] For many small-planet candidates, traditional confirmation via radial velocity (RV) measurements was challenging due to low signal-to-noise ratios, leading to widespread adoption of statistical validation methods like the BLENDER technique. BLENDER assesses the false positive probability by simulating a range of blend scenarios—such as eclipsing binaries, hierarchical triples, or background transits—and comparing their likelihoods to the observed light curve and ancillary data, often achieving validation without dynamical mass measurements. This approach was particularly effective for multi-planet systems, where the geometric and dynamical constraints of multiple transits further reduced false positive risks.[15] Where feasible, confirmation relied on complementary techniques tailored to candidate properties: RV spectroscopy from ground-based observatories like Keck/HIRES measured orbital velocities for Jupiter-sized planets, yielding masses and ruling out stellar companions; high-resolution imaging with adaptive optics (e.g., via Keck/NIRC2) resolved nearby stars to exclude background sources; and multi-wavelength observations, such as infrared transits, probed for blend dilution or ellipsoidal variations.[16] These efforts were supported by space-based assets including Spitzer Space Telescope for warm Spitzer follow-ups to verify transit depths across wavelengths, and occasionally TESS for re-observations in overlapping fields to refine ephemerides.[17] The validation and confirmation pipeline culminated in the release of KOI catalogs, issued quarterly during the mission to incorporate new data quarters, with the final comprehensive archive (Data Release 25) in 2018 encompassing all 18 quarters of observations.[18] As of November 2025, 2,784 Kepler planet candidates have been confirmed or statistically validated as exoplanets out of 4,763 total candidates identified, with 1,979 still awaiting confirmation.[1]Discovery Overview and Significance
Total Discoveries and Statistical Breakdown
The Kepler space telescope's prime mission (2009–2013) resulted in the confirmation of 2,784 exoplanets, primarily through transit photometry of stars in a fixed field of view along the Cygnus–Lyra region of the sky.[1] The subsequent K2 extension mission (2014–2018), which repurposed the telescope to survey new sky fields along the ecliptic plane, confirmed an additional 549 exoplanets, yielding a combined total of 3,333 confirmed discoveries archived by NASA as of November 2025.[1] These figures represent a substantial portion of all known exoplanets, underscoring Kepler's pivotal role in expanding the catalog from dozens to thousands.[5] In terms of planetary sizes, the confirmed Kepler exoplanets predominantly fall into the small-planet regime, with roughly 1,000 classified as super-Earths (radii of 1–2 Earth radii, R⊕) and approximately 500 as mini-Neptunes (2–4 R⊕), based on analyses of the mission's validated candidates and confirmed sample.[1] About 200 are larger gas giants exceeding 4 R⊕, while true Earth analogs (≤1.25 R⊕) number fewer than 200, limited by photometric noise thresholds that favor detection of larger or closer-in worlds.[1] This distribution highlights the prevalence of compact, rocky-to-icey worlds in close orbits, informing models of planetary formation and migration. Orbitally, the vast majority of Kepler discoveries have short periods under 100 days, reflecting the transit method's bias toward close-in planets, with only a small fraction exceeding this threshold due to the mission's four-year baseline.[5] Approximately 361 candidates and confirmed exoplanets reside in the habitable zones of their host stars (defined as receiving 0.25–2.2 times Earth's insolation flux or equilibrium temperatures between 180 K and 310 K), offering insights into potentially temperate environments.[1] Host stars are chiefly main-sequence FGK types (about 70% of targets), followed by M dwarfs (around 25%), which feature closer-in habitable zones due to their cooler temperatures; K2's ecliptic survey included brighter, more diverse hosts, enhancing follow-up studies.[5] Kepler data have enabled robust estimates of planetary occurrence rates, revealing that roughly 50% of Sun-like stars harbor at least one transiting planet smaller than Neptune within 100 days. The η⊕ (eta-Earth) metric, denoting the fraction of Sun-like stars with Earth-sized planets (1–1.5 R⊕) in the habitable zone, ranges from 10% to 50% across various analyses, depending on assumptions about planet radius, stellar type, and zone boundaries. These statistics imply billions of potentially habitable worlds in the Milky Way, transforming planetary science by quantifying the commonality of our solar system's architecture.Notable Exoplanet Categories and Examples
The Kepler mission significantly advanced the understanding of exoplanetary diversity by identifying several Earth-sized planets in the habitable zones of their host stars, where conditions might allow for liquid water. One prominent example is Kepler-452b, a super-Earth approximately 1.6 times the radius of Earth, orbiting a G-type star similar to the Sun with a period of 385 days, earning it the nickname "Earth's older cousin" due to the system's age of about 6 billion years.[19] Another key discovery, Kepler-186f, marked the first confirmed Earth-sized planet (1.11 Earth radii) in a habitable zone, orbiting an M-dwarf star every 130 days and demonstrating that such worlds exist around cooler stars, paving the way for studies of systems like TRAPPIST-1 with multiple potentially habitable planets.[20] Multi-planet systems revealed by Kepler highlighted the commonality of compact architectures, with planets often packed closely together in resonant orbits. The Kepler-11 system exemplifies this, featuring six sub-Neptune-sized planets orbiting a K-type star within a distance smaller than Mercury's orbit around the Sun, providing the first clear evidence of planetary migration where inner planets likely formed farther out and migrated inward, as indicated by their tight spacing and dynamical interactions. Kepler uncovered approximately 20 systems with more than four confirmed planets, underscoring the prevalence of such configurations and challenging the notion that our Solar System's layout is typical among exoplanetary architectures.[1] Circumbinary planets, orbiting pairs of stars, added to Kepler's groundbreaking findings by confirming stable planetary formation in binary environments. Kepler-16b, a Saturn-sized gas giant with a mass of 0.33 Jupiter masses, orbits a binary pair of stars (one K-type and one M-type) every 229 days, marking the first unambiguous detection of such a system in 2011 and illustrating how planets can endure the gravitational complexities of dual-star setups.[21] Among the smallest exoplanets detected, Kepler-37b stands out as a rocky world roughly one-third the size of Earth (about 0.3 Earth radii) and slightly larger than the Moon, completing an ultra-short 13-day orbit around a K-type star, likely too hot for liquid water but offering insights into the lower mass limit for planetary formation around Sun-like stars.[22] These discoveries collectively demonstrated the abundance of compact multi-planet systems in the galaxy, with Kepler's data revealing that such arrangements—often with planets in near-resonant chains—are far more common than isolated giants like Jupiter, fundamentally reshaping models of planetary system formation and evolution.[23]Categorized Lists of Confirmed Exoplanets
Lists by Discovery Year
The discoveries of exoplanets by the Kepler space telescope are organized chronologically by the year of their official confirmation and announcement, allowing researchers to track the mission's progress in validating transit candidates from its photometric data. This temporal grouping highlights the evolution from initial individual confirmations to large-scale statistical validations, with a total of 2,784 confirmed Kepler exoplanets and 549 from the K2 extension mission as of November 2025, according to the NASA Exoplanet Archive. Ongoing analyses of archived data continue to yield new validations beyond the mission's end in 2018.[1] The inaugural confirmations occurred in 2010, marking the mission's early success just months after its March launch; NASA announced five hot Jupiter-like planets orbiting four stars, all with short orbital periods under 5 days. These were validated through radial velocity follow-up observations, demonstrating Kepler's sensitivity to transiting worlds. Representative examples from this batch are listed below, with parameters drawn from the NASA Exoplanet Archive.[24][25]| Planet Name | Host Star | Discovery Year | Radius (R⊕) | Orbital Period (days) | Semi-major Axis (AU) | Eccentricity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kepler-4b | KOI-4 | 2010 | 3.92 | 3.213 | 0.045 | 0.0 |
| Kepler-5b | KOI-18 | 2010 | 12.0 | 3.548 | 0.051 | 0.0 |
| Kepler-6b | KOI-136 | 2010 | 9.0 | 3.234 | 0.046 | 0.0 |
| Kepler-7b | KOI-97 | 2010 | 16.0 | 4.886 | 0.062 | 0.0 |
| Kepler-8b | KOI-102 | 2010 | 10.0 | 4.523 | 0.060 | 0.0 |
| Planet Name | Host Star | Discovery Year | Radius (R⊕) | Orbital Period (days) | Semi-major Axis (AU) | Eccentricity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kepler-10b | Kepler-10 | 2011 | 1.47 | 0.837 | 0.017 | 0.0 |
| Kepler-11b | Kepler-11 | 2011 | 1.97 | 2.903 | 0.041 | 0.0 |
| Kepler-11c | Kepler-11 | 2011 | 2.87 | 9.989 | 0.107 | 0.0 |
| Kepler-11d | Kepler-11 | 2011 | 3.12 | 13.000 | 0.131 | 0.0 |
| Kepler-16b | Kepler-16 | 2011 | 10.4 | 228.8 | 0.704 | 0.007 |
| Planet Name | Host Star | Discovery Year | Radius (R⊕) | Orbital Period (days) | Semi-major Axis (AU) | Eccentricity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kepler-186f | Kepler-186 | 2014 | 1.17 | 129.9 | 0.40 | 0.0 |
| Kepler-296e | Kepler-296 | 2014 | 1.12 | 34.4 | 0.18 | 0.0 |
| Planet Name | Host Star | Discovery Year | Radius (R⊕) | Orbital Period (days) | Semi-major Axis (AU) | Eccentricity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| K2-3d | K2-3 | 2016 | 1.71 | 24.0 | 0.15 | 0.0 |
| K2-18b | K2-18 | 2016 | 2.61 | 32.9 | 0.18 | 0.0 |
| K2-106b | K2-106 | 2018 | 1.85 | 1.78 | 0.022 | 0.0 |
| K2-138e | K2-138 | 2018 | 2.76 | 24.9 | 0.16 | 0.0 |
Lists by Planet Characteristics
Confirmed Kepler exoplanets are often categorized by physical characteristics such as planetary radius, orbital period, and equilibrium temperature to facilitate comparative studies of planetary architectures and formation processes. These classifications reveal patterns like the radius gap—a notable depletion in the distribution of planets with radii between approximately 1.5 and 2 Earth radii (R⊕), separating rocky super-Earths from gaseous mini-Neptunes—which is prominent in Kepler data and observed as a factor of 2–4 fewer planets in this size range compared to adjacent bins. This gap, arising from atmospheric photoevaporation or formation mechanisms, affects roughly 30% of multi-planet systems by influencing the transition between planet types. Parameters like radius and period are derived primarily from transit photometry, with uncertainties typically 5–20% due to stellar radius estimates and limb darkening effects; masses and temperatures are less constrained without radial velocity follow-up.[1]By Planetary Radius
Kepler's discoveries span a wide range of radii, from sub-Earth-sized worlds to inflated gas giants exceeding Jupiter's size. Small planets (<2 R⊕) dominate the catalog, comprising over 50% of confirmed detections, while larger ones (>6 R⊕) are rarer due to detection biases favoring shorter periods. The following table highlights representative examples in radius categories, focusing on confirmed planets with available parameters from transit fits.| Planet Name | Radius (R⊕) | Mass (M⊕, if known) | Orbital Period (days) | Equilibrium Temperature (K) | Habitable Zone? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kepler-20e | 0.87 ± 0.01 | Unknown | 6.10 | ~1310 | No |
| Kepler-37b | 0.30 ± 0.04 | Unknown | 13.37 | ~423 | No |
| Kepler-186f | 1.17 ± 0.08 | Unknown | 129.9 | ~202 | Yes |
| Kepler-62e | 1.61 ± 0.09 | Unknown | 122.4 | ~208 | Yes |
| Kepler-11d | 2.87 ± 0.08 | Unknown | 22.7 | ~717 | No |
| Kepler-36c | 3.72 ± 0.18 | 8.08 ± 0.66 | 13.54 | ~931 | No |
| Kepler-12b | 9.37 ± 0.45 | Unknown | 10.74 | ~2210 | No |
| Kepler-51d | 9.73 ± 0.80 | 0.035 ± 0.005 (M_Jup) | 272.4 | ~330 | No |
By Orbital Period
Orbital periods from Kepler range from hours to over a year, with a peak around 3–30 days due to the mission's sensitivity to short transits. Hot Jupiters (<10 days) are close-in and tidally locked, while longer-period planets (>100 days) offer insights into temperate conditions. The table below provides examples across period bins, emphasizing diversity in size and potential habitability.| Planet Name | Radius (R⊕) | Mass (M⊕, if known) | Orbital Period (days) | Equilibrium Temperature (K) | Habitable Zone? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kepler-13b | 12.5 ± 0.6 | 653 ± 82 | 1.40 | ~2450 | No |
| Kepler-76b | 11.8 ± 0.6 | Unknown | 1.54 | ~2400 | No |
| Kepler-10b | 1.47 ± 0.05 | 4.6 ± 1.3 | 0.84 | ~1600 | No |
| Kepler-22b | 2.38 ± 0.13 | Unknown | 289.9 | ~262 | Yes |
| Kepler-62f | 1.41 ± 0.07 | Unknown | 267.3 | ~208 | Yes |
| Kepler-1638b | 1.87 | 4.16 | 259.3 | 281 | Yes |
By Planet Type
Planets are broadly classified as rocky (likely <2 R⊕, high density if mass known) or gaseous (envelopes of hydrogen/helium, >2 R⊕), aiding models of composition and migration. Rocky types, potentially with silicate/iron cores, include Earth analogs; gaseous ones range from mini-Neptunes to Jupiters. Uncertainties in mass limit precise typing, but transit-derived densities confirm trends in ~20% of cases. Representative rocky examples:- Kepler-20e: Rocky super-Earth, radius 0.87 R⊕, period 6.1 days, eq. temp. 1310 K, not in HZ—likely barren due to proximity.
- Kepler-186f: Rocky, 1.17 R⊕, 130 days, 202 K, in HZ—first Earth-sized HZ planet, possible ocean world.
- Kepler-62e: Rocky/mini-Neptune transition, 1.61 R⊕, 122 days, 208 K, in HZ—receives Earth-like insolation.