Kepler-36b

Suspected lava-like super-Earth orbiting Kepler-36

Kepler-36b is an exoplanet orbiting the star Kepler-36.^[1] This planet has the closest conjunction to Kepler-36c every 97 days. Its density is similar to that of iron.^[2]

During their closest approach, Kepler-36b and Kepler-36c are located only 0.013 AU (about 1,900,000 km) from each other, which causes extreme transit-timing variations for both planets. Transit-timing variations caused by Kepler-36c are strong enough to put narrow constraints on Kepler-36b's mass.^[2] The close proximity of the planet to its host star combined with its relatively low mass caused the planet to lose all or most of its primordial hydrogen/helium envelope.^[3]

References

^ Thomas H. Maugh II (2012-06-21). "Astronomers find unlikely pair of planets orbiting star". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2012-06-21.
^ ^a ^b Carter, J. A.; et al. (2012). "Kepler-36: A Pair of Planets with Neighboring Orbits and Dissimilar Densities". Science. 337 (6094): 556–559. arXiv:1206.4718. Bibcode:2012Sci...337..556C. doi:10.1126/science.1223269. PMID 22722249. S2CID 40245894.
^ Bodenheimer, P.; Stevenson, D.; Lissauer, J.; D'Angelo, G. (2018). "New Formation Models for the Kepler-36 System". The Astrophysical Journal. 868 (2): id. 138 (17 pp.). arXiv:1810.07160. Bibcode:2018ApJ...868..138B. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/aae928. S2CID 59055335.