Real exoplanet setting

Where daylight thins

View image ↗
Where daylight thins
The Light Garden · Alien forests & weatherArtist’s imagined scene

The saved equilibrium-temperature estimate is 234 ± 20 kelvin. Equilibrium temperature describes a model energy balance; it is not a measurement of the ground or the lake in this image. Atmospheric warming, albedo and heat redistribution could produce very different local conditions, or no liquid refuge at all [1, 2]. We place this scene near the boundary of illumination in our assumed rotation state. Tall forest gradually gives way to low folded growth, mist and frost. The host sits close to a ridge because of the chosen viewpoint. It is not necessarily setting; the scene is a location within a scenario, not a timestamp in a measured day. The low colonies shelter small partners beneath transparent insulating films. Water collects in protected depressions while exposed ridges freeze. The invented biology uses architecture to moderate its immediate surroundings, trading extensive light-gathering area for a smaller, more sheltered form. Nothing in the catalog establishes this forest boundary, ice line or habitat. A tested climate model would be needed even to argue that such a transition can persist. The plate makes the uncertainty visible by placing fragile living structures against an immense cold landscape, where the proposed water cycle approaches its limits. Viewpoint: Forest boundary near the assumed terminator.

01 / Interpretation

The imagined scene

The host system is real. All alien organisms, robots, societies and social histories are fictional. Moons, rings, terrain and weather are artistic assumptions unless specifically supported by a cited source. These images are not calibrated simulations of the sky.

02 / Evidence

The scientific anchor

Kepler-1649 c is a transiting planet around Kepler-1649. Its saved radius is 1.06 (+0.15 / −0.10) Earth radii and its orbital period is 19.53527 ± 0.00010 days [Vanderburg et al. 2020]. This scene explores oblique illumination and a cold boundary. Low colonies and insulating films shelter partners in an invented liquid-water refuge. All weather, vegetation and other life are fictional.

Available measurements

Host: Kepler-1649 · 1 catalog star(s) · Rocky-size candidate

NASA composite catalog values may combine different papers. Errors and upper/lower limits are retained. “Calculated Value” means derived or estimated. Msini is a minimum mass. Missing values are unknown. A multiple-star system’s single stellar row does not describe every component. Equilibrium temperature is not a measured surface temperature.

QuantityValue & uncertaintyUnitPaper / source
Planet radius1.06 [+0.15 / -0.1]Earth radiiVanderburg et al. 2020
Planet mass1.2Earth massesCalculated Value
Bulk density5.54g/cm³Calculated Value
Orbital period19.535 [+0.0001 / -0.0001]daysVanderburg et al. 2020
Orbital semimajor axis0.0649AUQ1-Q17 DR25 KOI Table
Orbital eccentricity0Q1-Q17 DR25 KOI Table
Orbital inclination89.339 [+0.056 / -0.056]degreesVanderburg et al. 2020
Irradiation0.75 [+0.032 / -0.302]Earth fluxVanderburg et al. 2020
Equilibrium temperature234 [+20 / -20]K; not surface temperatureVanderburg et al. 2020
Catalog stellar effective temperature3,240 [+61 / -61]KVanderburg et al. 2020
Catalog stellar radius0.2317 [+0.0049 / -0.0049]Solar radiiVanderburg et al. 2020
Catalog stellar mass0.1977 [+0.0051 / -0.0051]Solar massesVanderburg et al. 2020
Catalog stellar luminosity-2.2873 [+0.01652 / -0.01717]log10 Solar luminosityVanderburg et al. 2020
Catalog stellar ageUnknownGyrSource not supplied
Catalog stellar metallicity-0.15 [+0.11 / -0.11]dexVanderburg et al. 2020
System distance92.191 [+0.5489 / -0.5425]pcTICv8

What about life?

Passes a deliberately broad 0.25–1.75 Earth-flux triage window. This is not a calculated habitable zone or evidence of water or life. Atmosphere, surface pressure, water inventory, stellar activity and orbital history remain unassessed. No confirmed life; no planet-specific biosignature literature review in this release.

NASA system dossier ↗

Papers and references