Kepler-22b: A 2.4 Earth-radius Planet in the Habitable Zone of a Sun-like Star
Creators: name: Borucki, William J.
name: Koch, David G.
name: Batalha, Natalie
name: Bryson, Stephen T.
name: Caldwell, Douglas A.
name: Christensen-Dalsgaard, Jørgen
name: Cochran, William D.
name: DeVore, Edna
name: Gautier, Thomas N.
name: Geary, John C.
name: Gilliland, Ronald
name: Gould, Alan
name: Howell, Steve B.
name: Jenkins, Jon M.
name: Latham, David W.
name: Lissauer, Jack J.
name: Marcy, Geoffrey W.
name: Rowe, Jason
name: Sasselov, Dimitar
name: Boss, Alan
name: Charbonneau, David
name: Ciardi, David
name: Torres, Guillermo
name: Fressin, Francois
name: Kaltenegger, Lisa
name: Doyle, Laurance
name: Dupree, Andrea K.
name: Ford, Eric B.
name: Fortney, Jonathan
name: Holman, Matthew J.
name: Steffen, Jason A.
name: Mullally, Fergal
name: Still, Martin
name: Tarter, Jill
name: Ballard, Sarah
name: Buchhave, Lars A.
name: Carter, Josh
name: Christiansen, Jessie L.
name: Demory, Brice-Olivier
name: Désert, Jean-Michel
name: Dressing, Courtney
name: Endl, Michael
name: Fabrycky, Daniel
name: Fischer, Debra
name: Haas, Michael R.
name: Henze, Christopher
name: Horch, Elliott
name: Howard, Andrew W.
name: Isaacson, Howard
name: Kjeldsen, Hans
name: Johnson, John Asher
name: Klaus, Todd
name: Kolodziejczak, Jeffery
name: Barclay, Thomas
name: Li, Jie
name: Meibom, Søren
name: Prsa, Andrej
name: Quinn, Samuel N.
name: Quintana, Elisa V.
name: Robertson, Paul
name: Sherry, William
name: Shporer, Avi
name: Tenenbaum, Peter
name: Thompson, Susan E.
name: Twicken, Joseph D.
name: Van Cleve, Jeffrey
name: Welsh, William F.
name: Basu, Sarbani
name: Chaplin, Bill
name: Miglio, Andrea
name: Kawaler, Steve
name: Arentoft, Torben
name: Stello, Dennis
name: Metcalfe, Travis S.
name: Verner, Graham
name: Karoff, Christoffer
name: Lundkvist, Mia
name: Lund, Mikkel
name: Handberg, Rasmus
name: Elsworth, Yvonne
name: Hekker, Saskia
name: Huber, Daniel
name: Bedding, Timothy R.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2011
Subjects: subject: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP)
subject: Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: A search of the time-series photometry from NASA's Kepler spacecraft reveals a transiting planet candidate orbiting the 11th magnitude G5 dwarf KIC 10593626 with a period of 290 days. The characteristics of the host star are well constrained by high-resolution spectroscopy combined with an asteroseismic analysis of the Kepler photometry, leading to an estimated mass and radius of 0.970 +/- 0.060 MSun and 0.979 +/- 0.020 RSun. The depth of 492 +/- 10ppm for the three observed transits yields a radius of 2.38 +/- 0.13 REarth for the planet. The system passes a battery of tests for false positives, including reconnaissance spectroscopy, high-resolution imaging, and centroid motion. A full BLENDER analysis provides further validation of the planet interpretation by showing that contamination of the target by an eclipsing system would rarely mimic the observed shape of the transits. The final validation of the planet is provided by 16 radial velocities obtained with HIRES on Keck 1 over a one year span. Although the velocities do not lead to a reliable orbit and mass determination, they are able to constrain the mass to a 3σ upper limit of 124 MEarth, safely in the regime of planetary masses, thus earning the designation Kepler-22b. The radiative equilibrium temperature is 262K for a planet in Kepler-22b's orbit. Although there is no evidence that Kepler-22b is a rocky planet, it is the first confirmed planet with a measured radius to orbit in the Habitable Zone of any star other than the Sun.
description: Accepted to ApJ