Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jul 23, 2026

Kepler-160

Kepler-160 is a G-type subgiant star approximately the width of our Galactic arm away in the constellation Lyra, first studied in detail by the Kepler Mission, a NASA-led operation tasked with discovering terrestrial planets. The star, which is very similar to the Sun in mass and radius, has three confirmed planets and one unconfirmed planet orbiting it.

Last revised
Jul 23, 2026
Read time
≈ 5 min
Length
1,119 w
Citations
31
Source
Kepler-160
Observation data
Epoch J2000      Equinox J2000
Constellation Lyra1
Right ascension 19h 11m 05.6526s2
Declination +42° 52′ 09.473″2
Apparent magnitude (V) 13.101
Characteristics
Evolutionary stage subgiant2
Spectral type G53
J−H color index 0.359
J−K color index 0.408
Variable type ROT, Planetary transit
Astrometry
Proper motion (μ) RA: 3.477(16) mas/yr2
Dec.: −5.233(19) mas/yr2
Parallax (π)1.0644±0.0154 mas2
Distance3,060 ± 40 ly
(940 ± 10 pc)
Details
Mass1.014 M
Radius1.118+0.015
−0.045
5 R
Luminosity1.01±0.055 L
Surface gravity (log g)4.334 cgs
Temperature5471+115
−37
5 K
Metallicity [Fe/H]0.266 dex
Rotation77 days4
Rotational velocity (v sin i)1.34 km/s
Age84 Gyr
Other designations
KOI-456, KIC 7269974, 2MASS J19110565+4252094, Gaia DR3 21025870878460677127
Database references
SIMBADdata
Exoplanet Archivedata
KICdata

Kepler-160 is a G-type subgiant star approximately the width of our Galactic arm away in the constellation Lyra, first studied in detail by the Kepler Mission, a NASA-led operation tasked with discovering terrestrial planets. The star, which is very similar to the Sun in mass and radius,85 has three confirmed planets and one unconfirmed planet orbiting it.

Characteristics

The star Kepler-160 is rather old, having no detectable circumstellar disk.9 The star's metallicity is unknown, with conflicting values of either 40% or 160% of solar metallicity reported.1011

Despite having at least one potentially Earth-like planet (KOI-456.04), the Breakthrough Listen search for extraterrestrial intelligence found no potential technosignatures.12

Planetary system

The two planetary candidates in the Kepler-160 system were discovered in 2010, published in early 201113 and confirmed in 2014.14 The planets Kepler-160b and Kepler-160c are not in orbital resonance despite their orbital periods ratio being close to 1:3.15

An additional rocky transiting planet candidate KOI-456.04, located in the habitable zone, was detected in 2020,5 and more non-transiting planets are suspected due to residuals in the solution for the transit timing variations. From what researchers can tell, KOI-456.04 looks to be less than twice the size of Earth and is apparently orbiting Kepler-160 at about the same distance from Earth to the sun (one complete orbit is 378 days). Perhaps most important, it receives about 93% as much light as Earth gets from the sun.16 Nontransiting planet candidate Kepler-160d has a mass between about 1 and 100 Earth masses and an orbital period between about 7 and 50 d.5

The Kepler-160 planetary system5
Companion
(in order from star)
Mass Semimajor axis
(AU)
Orbital period
(days)
Eccentricity Inclination
(°)
Radius
b 0.05511+0.0019
−0.0037
4.309397+0.000013
−0.000012
0 1.715+0.061
−0.047
 R🜨
c 0.1192+0.004
−0.008
13.699429±0.000018 0 3.76+0.23
−0.09
 R🜨
d 1—100 M🜨 7—50
e (unconfirmed) 1.089+0.037
−0.073
378.417+0.028
−0.025
0 1.91+0.17
−0.14
 R🜨
See also

See also

References

References

  1. Roman, Nancy G. (1987). "Identification of a constellation from a position". Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. 99 (617): 695. Bibcode:1987PASP...99..695R. doi:10.1086/132034. Constellation record for this object at VizieR.
  2. Vallenari, A.; et al. (Gaia collaboration) (2023). "Gaia Data Release 3. Summary of the content and survey properties". Astronomy and Astrophysics. 674: A1. arXiv:2208.00211. Bibcode:2023A&A...674A...1G. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202243940. S2CID 244398875. Gaia DR3 record for this source at VizieR.
  3. Su, Tianhao; Zhang, Li-yun; Long, Liu; Han, Xianming L.; Misra, Prabhakar; Meng, Gang; Pi, Qingfeng; Yang, Zilu; Yang, Jiawei (2022). "Magnetic Activity and Physical Parameters of Exoplanet Host Stars Based on LAMOST DR7, TESS, Kepler, and K2 Surveys". The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series. 261 (2): 26. Bibcode:2022ApJS..261...26S. doi:10.3847/1538-4365/ac7151.
  4. Tejada Arevalo, Roberto A.; Winn, Joshua N.; Anderson, Kassandra R. (2021). "Further Evidence for Tidal Spin-up of Hot Jupiter Host Stars". The Astrophysical Journal. 919 (2): 138. arXiv:2107.05759. Bibcode:2021ApJ...919..138T. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ac1429.
  5. Heller, René; Hippke, Michael; Freudenthal, Jantje; Rodenbeck, Kai; Batalha, Natalie M.; Bryson, Steve (2020). "Transit least-squares survey". Astronomy & Astrophysics. 638: A10. arXiv:2006.02123. Bibcode:2020A&A...638A..10H. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201936929. S2CID 219260293.
  6. Huson, Dylan; Cowan, Indiana; Sizemore, Logan; Kounkel, Marina; Hutchinson, Brian (2025). "Gaia Net: Toward Robust Spectroscopic Parameters of Stars of all Evolutionary Stages". The Astrophysical Journal. 984 (1): 58. arXiv:2503.02958. Bibcode:2025ApJ...984...58H. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/adc2fa.
  7. "Kepler-160". SIMBAD. Centre de données astronomiques de Strasbourg. Retrieved 2024-05-08.
  8. Borucki, William J.; Koch, David G.; Basri, Gibor; Batalha, Natalie; Boss, Alan; Brown, Timothy M.; Caldwell, Douglas; Christensen-Dalsgaard, Jørgen; Cochran, William D.; Devore, Edna; Dunham, Edward W.; Dupree, Andrea K.; Gautier Iii, Thomas N.; Geary, John C.; Gilliland, Ronald; Gould, Alan; Howell, Steve B.; Jenkins, Jon M.; Kjeldsen, Hans; Latham, David W.; Lissauer, Jack J.; Marcy, Geoffrey W.; Monet, David G.; Sasselov, Dimitar; Tarter, Jill; Charbonneau, David; Doyle, Laurance; Ford, Eric B.; Fortney, Jonathan; et al. (2011). "Characteristics Ofkeplerplanetary Candidates Based on the First Data Set". The Astrophysical Journal. 728 (2): 117. arXiv:1006.2799. Bibcode:2011ApJ...728..117B. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/728/2/117. S2CID 93116.
  9. Lawler, S. M.; Gladman, B. (2012). "Debris Disks Inkeplerexoplanet Systems". The Astrophysical Journal. 752 (1): 53. arXiv:1112.0368. Bibcode:2012ApJ...752...53L. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/752/1/53. S2CID 119215667.
  10. Rowe, Jason F.; Bryson, Stephen T.; Marcy, Geoffrey W.; Lissauer, Jack J.; Jontof-Hutter, Daniel; Mullally, Fergal; Gilliland, Ronald L.; Issacson, Howard; Ford, Eric; Howell, Steve B.; Borucki, William J.; Haas, Michael; Huber, Daniel; Steffen, Jason H.; Thompson, Susan E.; Quintana, Elisa; Barclay, Thomas; Still, Martin; Fortney, Jonathan; Gautier, T. N.; Hunter, Roger; Caldwell, Douglas A.; Ciardi, David R.; Devore, Edna; Cochran, William; Jenkins, Jon; Agol, Eric; Carter, Joshua A.; Geary, John (2014). "Validation Ofkepler's Multiple Planet Candidates. III. Light Curve Analysis and Announcement of Hundreds of New Multi-Planet Systems". The Astrophysical Journal. 784 (1): 45. arXiv:1402.6534. Bibcode:2014ApJ...784...45R. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/784/1/45. S2CID 119118620.
  11. Petigura, Erik A.; Howard, Andrew W.; Marcy, Geoffrey W.; Johnson, John Asher; Isaacson, Howard; Cargile, Phillip A.; Hebb, Leslie; Fulton, Benjamin J.; Weiss, Lauren M.; Morton, Timothy D.; Winn, Joshua N.; Rogers, Leslie A.; Sinukoff, Evan; Hirsch, Lea A.; Crossfield, Ian J. M. (2017). "The California-Kepler Survey. I. High-resolution Spectroscopy of 1305 Stars HostingKepler Transiting Planets". The Astronomical Journal. 154 (3): 107. arXiv:1703.10400. Bibcode:2017AJ....154..107P. doi:10.3847/1538-3881/aa80de. S2CID 55183141.
  12. Perez, Karen; Brzycki, Bryan; Gajjar, Vishal; Isaacson, Howard; Siemion, Andrew; Croft, Steve; DeBoer, David; Lebofsky, Matt; MacMahon, David H. E.; Price, Danny C.; Sheikh, Sofia; Drew, Jamie; Pete Worden, S. (2020), "Breakthrough Listen Search for Technosignatures Towards the Kepler-160System", Research Notes of the American Astronomical Society, 4 (6): 97, arXiv:2006.13789, Bibcode:2020RNAAS...4...97P, doi:10.3847/2515-5172/ab9f36, S2CID 220042074
  13. Lissauer, Jack J.; Ragozzine, Darin; Fabrycky, Daniel C.; Steffen, Jason H.; Ford, Eric B.; Jenkins, Jon M.; Shporer, Avi; Holman, Matthew J.; Rowe, Jason F.; Quintana, Elisa V.; Batalha, Natalie M.; Borucki, William J.; Bryson, Stephen T.; Caldwell, Douglas A.; Carter, Joshua A.; Ciardi, David; Dunham, Edward W.; Fortney, Jonathan J.; Gautier, Iii, Thomas N.; Howell, Steve B.; Koch, David G.; Latham, David W.; Marcy, Geoffrey W.; Morehead, Robert C.; Sasselov, Dimitar (2011). "Architecture and Dynamics of Kepler 's Candidate Multiple Transiting Planet Systems". The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series. 197 (1): 8. arXiv:1102.0543. Bibcode:2011ApJS..197....8L. doi:10.1088/0067-0049/197/1/8. S2CID 43095783.
  14. Planet Kepler-160 b on exoplanet.eu
  15. Veras, Dimitri; Ford, Eric B. (2012). "Identifying non-resonant Kepler planetary systems". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters. 420 (1): L23–L27. arXiv:1111.0299. Bibcode:2012MNRAS.420L..23V. doi:10.1111/j.1745-3933.2011.01185.x. S2CID 55625425.
  16. Patel, Neel V. (2020-06-05). "Astronomers have found a planet like Earth orbiting a star like the sun". MIT Technology Review. Retrieved 2020-06-07.