Kepler-11
system
Kepler-11 — a Sun-like star ~2,110 light-years away in Cygnus, orbited by SIX planets packed into a remarkably flat, tight system — five of them closer to their star than Mercury is to the Sun. A showcase of how compact and coplanar a planetary system can be. Descend to explore all six.
Open in 3D viewSee Kepler-11 in the live, interactive 3D map
Science
Classification
- Type
- Planetary system
- Distance
- ~2,108 light-years · its real distance from the Sun
- Explore
- Descend to see the star and its confirmed planets
How we know
- Note
- A real star system, shown at its measured position in the galaxy. Its star and confirmed planets — their measured sizes and how each was found — are on the cards inside; descend to explore them. Distances follow Gaia parallax; planet data follow the NASA Exoplanet Archive.
Discovery & history
- Name
- A designation from NASA's Kepler mission (also KOI-157); the star has no proper name.
Announced in 2011, Kepler-11 was the most compact and flattest planetary system then known — six transiting planets whose orbits are so aligned they nearly share a plane. Because the crowded planets tug on each other, their masses could be weighed from their transit-timing variations, making them some of the first exoplanets with both size and mass measured — mostly low-density, gas-rich worlds.
Images
Images from open archives · credit shown per image