Kepler-186
Star
Kepler-186 — a red dwarf about half the Sun's mass, ~580 light-years away in Cygnus. It hosts four confirmed Earth-to-super-Earth planets on tight orbits, and is famous as the proposed home of the first Earth-size habitable-zone planet — a claim now under debate.
Open in 3D viewSee Kepler-186 in the live, interactive 3D map
Key facts
Mass
9.51 × 10²⁹ kg
0.478 M☉
Radius
328,370 km
47% of the Sun's radius
Surface temperature
3,788 K (3515 °C)
Luminosity
1.58 × 10²⁵ W
Spectral type
M1 (red dwarf)
Science
Physical
- Mass
- 9.51 × 10²⁹ kg · 0.478 M☉
- Radius
- 328,370 km · 47% of the Sun's radius
- Density
- 6,410 kg/m³ · 6.4× water
- Spectral type
- M1 (red dwarf)
Rotation
- Note
- A faint, distant red dwarf; only its transiting planets' shadows made it measurable at all.
Composition
- By mass
- A hydrogen/helium red dwarf about half the Sun's mass, ~580 light-years away. It hosts four confirmed Earth-to-super-Earth planets on tight orbits, and is famous as the proposed home of the first Earth-size habitable-zone planet — a claim now under debate.
Temperature
- Surface
- 3,788 K (3515 °C)
Radiation & temperature
- Luminosity
- 1.58 × 10²⁵ W · 0.0413 L☉
- Surface temperature
- 3,788 K (3515 °C)
- Peak wavelength
- 765 nm · near-infrared (mostly invisible to the eye)
Discovery & history
- Name
- A Kepler-mission catalogue designation; no proper name.
Found by NASA's Kepler telescope in 2014, this faint, distant red dwarf became one of the mission's most celebrated systems for the (now-contested) habitable-zone planet f announced alongside its four secure inner worlds.
Images
Images from open archives · credit shown per image