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Entering orbit…
Habitability
19/ 100
Uninhabitable
Kepler-16 b rendered in TerraForge from its measured mass, orbit and star

Kepler-16 b

Also written Kepler-16b, Kepler 16b, Kepler 16 b

Gas Giant245 light years awayFound 2011
Mass
106.00 × Earth
Radius
8.45 × Earth
Gravity
1.48 g
Surface (est.)
197 K
Year
229 days
From Earth
245 ly
Mass
106.00 × Earth
Radius
8.45 × Earth
Gravity
1.48 g
Surface (est.)
197 K
Year
229 days
From Earth
245 ly

Kepler-16 system

Type
K-type (Orange)
Temperature
4,450 K
Radius
0.649 ☉
Mass
0.69 ☉
Planets
1
Luminosity
0.125 ☉

Published by the NASA Exoplanet Archive. This world’s temperature and habitability score are computed from this star’s measured luminosity, not from a stand-in for its class.

Kepler-16 b0.70 AUYou are here106 M⊕
Habitable zone

Star and planets drawn to scale: the star is 8.4 times as wide as Kepler-16 b, so only its edge is in view. Orbits spaced as in the star system view.

Kepler-16 b was the first planet confirmed to transit, or pass in front of, a pair of stars. Announced in September 2011, it showed that planets can form and survive around binary stars, and it drew instant comparisons with Tatooine, the fictional desert world with two suns in Star Wars. NASA's Kepler space telescope saw it cross in front of both stars, on top of the regular dimming as the two stars eclipse each other. The study, led by Laurance Doyle of the SETI Institute, appeared in the journal Science.

Surface. No solid surface - thick gaseous envelope with possible rocky core deep within

Gas Giant
Magnetic FieldExtreme Activity
Kepler-16 b has 86.0% hydrogen and helium, combined with a mass of 106.0x Earth, which exceeds the gas giant threshold.
Gas giants form when massive cores capture enormous atmospheres of light gases. They typically form beyond the 'frost line' where volatiles can condense.
Classification Criteria:
✓ Hydrogen + Helium: 86.0% (>60% required)✓ Mass: 106.0x Earth (>10x required)

Reading Kepler-16 b’s atmosphere

Dominant elements: H, He, O, C, NThis is what a telescope would measure while Kepler-16 b crosses in front of its star: starlight passes through the atmosphere and spreads into a rainbow band. Each dark line marks a wavelength the atmosphere absorbed.Every element absorbs its own signature wavelengths — hydrogen always darkens the same two spots, calcium another pair, and so on. Astronomers match the lines in a real spectrum against a library of these signatures to say what an atmosphere is made of, light-years away, without ever visiting. A deeper line generally means more of that element is present.Kepler-16 b sits about 245 light-years away, found by the transit method. Most catalogued distances trace back to parallax: as Earth orbits the Sun, a nearby star appears to shift very slightly against the distant background stars, and the size of that shift gives its distance directly.
Further reading
ExoplanetsSara Seager (editor)The field's standard reference: how planets are found, how they form, and what their atmospheres are made of.The Planet FactoryElizabeth TaskerHow planets are made, and why so few of them come out like Earth.Exoplanets: Diamond Worlds, Super Earths, Pulsar PlanetsMichael Summers & James TrefilThe strange end of the catalogue — carbon worlds, molten rock, planets orbiting dead stars.The Little Book of ExoplanetsJoshua WinnHow these worlds are found, and what a measurement can honestly tell us.
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Habitability ScoreUninhabitable
19
Contributing Factors
temperature20
Very cold - water frozen, challenging for life
atmosphere30

Hydrogen and helium dominated with trace methane and ammonia

Hydrogen-rich atmosphere typical of gas giants
water15
No solid surface — any water is locked in a supercritical mantle and hot ice, not oceans
magnetic Field100
Magnetic field provides radiation protection
geology40
Extreme volcanic activity may be hazardous
Organic Chemistry80
Core organic elements (CHNO) present
rotation100
Optimal rotation period - balanced day/night cycle, moderate weather, and good heat distribution

Physical Properties

Mass
106.00x Earth (6.33e+26 kg)
Radius
4.73x Earth (30,152 km)
This planet: 4.73× Earth radiusEarth: 1× (baseline)
Surface Gravity
4.73x Earth (46.4 m/s²)
Surface Temperature
197 K (-76 °C / -104 °F)
Rotation Period
24.0 hours/day
This planet: 24 h/dayEarth: 24 h/day

Elemental Composition

How TerraForge built this world

Kepler-16 b, from the NASA Exoplanet Archive (found 2011). Measured: 106 Earth masses, 0.705 AU, a 4450 K K-type star. Composition inferred from a mass of 106 Earths, which is giant territory whatever its 0.18x density suggests, with an assumed 24-hour day — rotation cannot be measured for exoplanets.

A dark ringed planet hanging over the horizon of a rocky moon, its rings lit by a distant sun

New: Stand on Your Moons 🌒

A planet's surface view isn't the only ground any more. Press the surface button on a planet with moons and it asks where to stand: the planet itself, or any moon still in orbit, each tagged with what it became — ocean, ice, carbon, volcanic. Every moon gets its own ground and sky from its own physics: airless rock under a black sky, ice cracked by geysers over a hidden sea, sulfur plains shaking with eruptions, or orange haze you can't see the sun through. And hanging over the horizon, there's the planet you built.

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