Kepler-90i is a super-Earth extrasolar planet orbiting the G-type main-sequence star Kepler-90 every 14.44 days. It was discovered by NASA's Kepler spacecraft. It is located 2,545 light years (780 parsecs) away from Earth in the constellation Drago. It has a radius 1.32 times that of Earth. As of December 2017, Kepler-90 hosts the most planets found so far.
Kepler-90i was found with the transit method, in which the dimming effect that a planet causes as it crosses in front of its star is measured, and by a newly utilized computer tool, deep learning, a class of machine learning algorithms.
Characteristics[]
Mass, radius, and temperature[]
Kepler-90i is a super-Earth exoplanet with a radius of 1.32 Earth radius, indicating that it is small enough to be rocky. With an Earth-like composition, Kepler-90i would have a mass of about 2.5 Earth masses. It has an equilibrium temperature of 709 K (436 °C; 817 °F), which is similar to the average temperature of Venus.
Host star[]
The planet orbits a G-type main-sequence star named Kepler-90. The star has a mass of 1.2 Solar masses and a radius of 1.2 Solar radii. It has a surface temperatures of 6080 K and has an estimated age of around 2 billion years. In comparison, the Sun is about 4.6 billion years old and has a surface temperature of 5778 K.
The star's apparent magnitude, or how bright it appears from Earth's perspective, is 14, so it is too dim to be seen with the naked eye.
Orbital characteristics[]
Kepler-90i orbits its host star about every 14.45 days with a semi-major axis of 0.1234 AU.
Discovery[]
In 2009, NASA's Kepler spacecraft was observing stars on its photometer, the instrument it uses to detect transit events, in which a planet crosses in front of and dims its host star for a brief and roughly regular period of time. In its last test, Kepler observed 50,000 stars in the Kepler Input Catalog, including Kepler-90; the preliminary light curves were sent to the Kepler science team for analysis, who chose obvious planetary companions from the bunch for follow-up at observatories. Discovery of the exoplanet was aided by a newly utilized computer tool, deep learning, a class of machine learning algorithms.