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Kepler-91b is a planet orbiting Kepler-91, a star slightly more massive than the Sun. Kepler-91 has left the main sequence and is now a red giant branch star.
Discovery and further confirmation
Kepler-91b was detected by analyzing the data of Kepler spacecraft where a transit-like signal was found. Initially thought to be a false positive due to light curve variations by a self-luminous object, it was later revealed that due to low density of Kepler-91's shape is distorted to slightly ellipsoidal shape due to gravitational effects of the planet. Ellipsoidal light variations caused by Kepler-91b constitute more than the third of light variations compared to transit depth. Ellipsoidal light variations also allowed to determine the planet's mass. It was also found that Kepler-91b reflects some of the starlight from its star.
Further analysis managed to question the planetary nature of the object, suspecting that it is a self-luminous object. However, the planetary nature was eventually confirmed again.
Characteristics
Kepler-91b is about 14% less massive than Jupiter while being more than 35% larger, making it less than half of the density of water. Kepler-91b orbits around the host star in about 6.25 days. Despite being one of the least edge-on orbits relative to Earth with inclination being about 68.5 degrees, transit was detected due to low semi-major axis to host star radius ratio.
Kepler-91b is expected to be engulfed by the parent star within about 55 million years.
Possible trojan companion
The possibility of a trojan planet to Kepler-91b was studied but the conclusion was that the transit-signal was a false-positive.
References
- Kepler-91b: a planet at the end of its life. Planet and giant host star properties via light-curve variations
- A bot will complete this citation soon. Click here to jump the queue arXiv:1401.1207.
- Kepler-91b: a planet at the end of its life. Planet and giant host star properties via light-curve variations J. Lillo-Box, D. Barrado, A. Moya, B. Montesinos, J. Montalbán, A. Bayo, M. Barbieri, C. Régulo, L. Mancini, H. Bouy, T. Henning: 14 Dec 2013
- Changing Phases of Alien Worlds: Probing Atmospheres of Kepler Planets with High-Precision Photometry Lisa J. Esteves, Ernst J. W. De Mooij, Ray Jayawardhana: 10 Jul 2014
- Characterization of Kepler-91b and the Investigation of a Potential Trojan Companion Using EXONEST, Ben Placek, Kevin H. Knuth, Daniel Angerhausen, Jon M. Jenkins, (Submitted on 3 Nov 2015)
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