Kepler-16 B
Star
Kepler-16 B — the secondary, a small red M-dwarf only ~0.20 solar masses, orbiting the primary every 41 days. Faint and cool, it is the fainter of the planet's two suns; together with Kepler-16 A it makes a real double sunset possible.
Open in 3D viewSee Kepler-16 B in the live, interactive 3D map
Key facts
Mutual orbit
41.08 Earth days
Mass
4.03 × 10²⁹ kg
0.203 M☉
Radius
157,388 km
23% of the Sun's radius
Surface temperature
3,311 K (3,038 °C)
Spectral type
M-dwarf (red dwarf), the fainter of the two suns
Science
Physical
- Mass
- 4.03 × 10²⁹ kg · 0.203 M☉
- Radius
- 157,388 km · 23% of the Sun's radius
- Density
- 24,669 kg/m³ · 25× water
- Computed from mass and radius
- Spectral type
- M-dwarf (red dwarf), the fainter of the two suns
Motion through space
- Note
- Catalogued for the system as a whole: the motion of its stars' common centre of mass.
- Proper motion
- 0.0509 arcseconds per year · its drift across our sky
- SIMBAD — 2020yCat.1350....0G
- Radial velocity
- -32.4 km/s · approaching the Sun
- SIMBAD — 2020yCat.1350....0G
- Speed across our line of sight
- 18.2 km/s
- Computed from proper motion and parallax
- Speed through space, relative to the Sun
- 37.1 km/s
- Computed from proper motion, parallax and radial velocity
Orbit (around the system barycenter)
- Semi-major axis
- 0.173 AU
- NASA Exoplanet Archive + Doyle et al. 2011 (eclipsing-binary + transit solution)
- Eccentricity
- 0.1594
- NASA Exoplanet Archive + Doyle et al. 2011 (eclipsing-binary + transit solution)
- Orbital period
- 41.1 days
- NASA Exoplanet Archive + Doyle et al. 2011 (eclipsing-binary + transit solution)
Composition
- By mass
- A small, cool red dwarf only ~0.20 solar masses, orbiting the primary every 41 days. Faint and red, it is the second of the planet's two suns — the pair that makes a real double sunset possible.
Temperature
- Surface
- 3,311 K (3,038 °C)
Radiation & temperature
- Luminosity
- 2.12 × 10²⁴ W · 0.00554 L☉
- Surface temperature
- 3,311 K (3,038 °C)
- Peak wavelength
- 875 nm · near-infrared (mostly invisible to the eye)
- Computed (Wien's law) from the surface temperature
Discovery & history
- Method
- Telescope
- Name
- Designated A/B for the primary and secondary of the eclipsing binary.
The fainter star of the Kepler-16 eclipsing binary; its regular eclipses of the primary are what let astronomers weigh both stars — and the planet transiting them.
Images
Kepler-16 A and B have never been imaged as separate stars — to the eye they merge into a single point. The double-sun system is shown in the artist's concept on the planet and system view.