K2-2016-BLG-0005Lb

K2-2016-BLG-0005Lb is the most distant exoplanet discovered by the Kepler space telescope, being twice the distance of its previous record. Its distance is estimated at 16,960 ly from the Earth, being discovered on January 4, 2022, thanks to an effect of gravitational microlensing from a series of data recorded in 2016, then revealed on March 31, 2022.

Star

K2-2016-BLG-0005Lb orbits a dwarf star less massive than the Sun, named K2-2016-BLG-0005L. Its mass is estimated at 0.584 ± 0.03 solar masses.

Characteristics

The exoplanet is almost an exact twin of Jupiter. It is of similar mass and orbits at almost the same orbital distance. The power of the gravitational lens allowed the team to determine that the exoplanet is about 1.1 Jovian mass, orbiting its star at a circular distance of 4.18 ± 0, 27 astronomical units, the average orbital distance of Jupiter being 5.2 astronomical units.

See also

• Exoplanet
• List of exoplanets discovered in 2023
• Gravitational microlensing
• Kepler Space Telescope

References

External links

• K2-2016-BLG-0005Lb on the Extrasolar Planets Encyclopedia.