Science with Atbin's video: Kepler-47c

Kepler-47c is an extrasolar planet orbiting the circumbinary system Kepler-47 in the constellation Cygnus. The system, also involving another exoplanet, Kepler-47b, is about 4,900 light years away. The two parent stars, Kepler-47A and Kepler-47B, orbit each other about every 7.45 days. Kepler-47A is the larger and brighter of the two, being about the same size as the Sun and with about 84% of the sun's luminosity. Kepler-47B, however, is only a little over 36% as large as the sun, and has only a little more than 1% of the sun's luminosity. Kepler-47c makes a complete orbit around its parent stars about every 303 days, and it lies within the system's habitable zone. However, studies show it is most likely a gas giant planet, thus not being able to sustain life. Hypothetically, though, any moons it may harbor could, with the right properties, support life. Kepler-47c is slightly larger than the planet Neptune, being about 4.6 times as large as Earth, and could have a dense atmosphere of water vapor.