Artwork of exoplanet Kepler 10c. This is a very dense, rocky planet in orbit around Kepler 10, a sun-like star located in the constellation of Draco, 560 light-years from Earth. The planet is thought to be more than twice the diameter of the Earth but much denser, which has caused some astronomers to dub it a 'mega-Earth'. It orbits its star in 45 days at just quarter of the distance of the Earth from the Sun (0.25 astronomical units). Kepler 10c is one of two currently known planets around Kepler 10. The other, Kepler 10b, orbits even closer in. |