Source: Kepler@NASA
Artist's conception of Kepler-10 Stellar Family Portrait.
Image credit: NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech.
Today Kepler team is announcing another member of the Kepler-10 family, called Kepler-10c (larger foreground object in the image on this page). It has a radius of 2.2 times that of Earth's, and it orbits the star every 45 days. Both Kepler-10b and 10c would be blistering hot worlds.
The Kepler-10 system is located about 560 light-years away near the Cygnus and Lyra constellations. Kepler has discovered two planets around this star. Kepler-10b is, to date, the smallest known rocky exoplanet, or planet outside our solar system (dark spot against yellow sun). This planet, which has a radius of 1.4 times that of Earth's, whips around its star every .8 days. Its discovery was announced in Jan. 2011. (read more)
