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Exoplanets Answers

Kepler's Third Law relates the orbital period and semi-major axis of a planet's orbit. It can be used to calculate missing data for planets in our solar system and exoplanets. The document provides examples of using the law to find the distance from the parent star for several known exoplanets, including Kepler-5b, 6b, 7b, and 8b, based on their orbital periods and the star's mass. It also calculates the distance of Kepler-452b, the most similar exoplanet to Earth discovered so far, as 1.046 AU or 156,500,000 km from its star.

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265 views2 pages

Exoplanets Answers

Kepler's Third Law relates the orbital period and semi-major axis of a planet's orbit. It can be used to calculate missing data for planets in our solar system and exoplanets. The document provides examples of using the law to find the distance from the parent star for several known exoplanets, including Kepler-5b, 6b, 7b, and 8b, based on their orbital periods and the star's mass. It also calculates the distance of Kepler-452b, the most similar exoplanet to Earth discovered so far, as 1.046 AU or 156,500,000 km from its star.

Uploaded by

Michelle Escaliente
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Exploring Exoplanets with Kepler: ANSWERS

Kepler's Third Law states:

The square of the orbital period of a planet is directly proportional to the cube of the
semi-major axis of its orbit (or the average distance to the sun).

For our solar system and planets around stars with the same mass as our sun, that
simply states that R3 = T2, where R is a planet's distance from the sun in Astronomical
Units (AU) and T is the planet's orbital period in years.

Because the distance between Earth and the sun (1 AU) is 149,600,000 km and one
Earth year is 365 days, the distance and orbital period of other planets can be
calculated when only one variable is known.

1. Use Kepler’s Third Law to calculate the missing data for these planets in
our solar system.

Planet Orbital Orbital Distance from Distance from


Period Period Sun (AU) Sun (km)
(years) (days)
Mercury 0.24 years 88.0 days 0.387 AU 57,900,000 km
Venus 0.62 years 224.7 days 0.72 AU 108,200,000 km
Earth 1 year 365.2 days 1 AU 149,600,000 km

For planets around other stars (exoplanets), we must modify the formula to account for
!
the variation in the star’s mass as compared with our sun. So we use R = T  ! ·   M!
where Ms = is the star’s mass in relation to our sun's mass.

2. Use Kepler’s Third Law and the light curve data below to calculate the
missing data for Kepler-5b, 6b, 7b and 8b. Then, calculate the missing
information for Kepler-452b, the most Earth-like exoplanet yet discovered.

Planet Mass of Orbital Distance from Distance from


Parent Star Period Parent Star (AU) Parent Star (km)
(relative to (days)
sun)
Kepler-5b 1.37 Ms 3.55 days 0.05064 AU 7,580,000 km
Kepler-6b 1.21 Ms 3.23 days 0.04559 AU 6,820,000 km
Kepler-7b 1.36 Ms 4.89 days 0.06250 AU 9,350,000 km
Kepler-8b 1.21 Ms 3.52 days 0.04828 AU 7,220,000 km
Kepler-452b 1.04 Ms 384.84 days 1.046 AU 156,500,000 km

FUN FACT: Stars observed by the Kepler mission with confirmed exoplanets are named
Kepler-1, Kepler-2, Kepler-3, etc. The exoplanets around these stars are given a letter
that corresponds to the order in which they were discovered, starting with b. So, Kepler-
5b is the first exoplanet discovered around the fifth star found to have a planet.

NASA/JPL Education – Exploring Exoplanets with Kepler Discover more: www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu


Exploring Exoplanets with Kepler: ANSWERS

NASA/JPL Education – Exploring Exoplanets with Kepler Discover more: www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu

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