Astronomical evidence
K2-22 b repeats its transit signal on an approximately 9.15-hour orbit. The occultation changes markedly from one observation to another. A disintegrating body shedding dust explains the variable signal, and the discovery analysis considers a leading dust tail as part of that interpretation. Follow-up observations recovered the transits at multiple epochs and documented continued changes in their depth and shape. The evidence is a changing light curve: the amount of stellar light removed from our line of sight varies with the distribution of occulting material. A dusty transit is not a clean measurement of a solid planetary disk. The tabulated radius must therefore be interpreted with the source method in mind. Dust abundance, grain properties and geometry can affect the signal without a comparable change in the surviving body’s physical radius.
The illustrated viewpoint
The pictured copper tail is an illustration of particulate material, not a resolved image. Its brightness, color, curvature and the remnant’s molten cracks are invented. The observations do not show a stream of individually resolved boulders.
The pictured copper tail is an illustration of particulate material, not a resolved image. Its brightness, color, curvature and the remnant’s molten cracks are invented. The observations do not show a stream of individually resolved boulders. All depicted life and technology are fictional.
Catalog measurements & sources
Host: K2-22. Snapshot: 25 September 2026. Errors, limits and source provenance are retained. Calculated values and model estimates are not direct measurements. Unknown is not zero; equilibrium temperature is not surface temperature.
| Quantity / unit | Value / reported errors | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Radius · Earth radii | 2.3 (+0.1 / -0.1) | Adams et al. 2021 |
| Mass · Earth masses | ≤ 444.962 | Sanchis-Ojeda et al. 2015 |
| Density · g/cm³ | Unknown | Not supplied |
| Orbital period · days | 0.381073 (+2.4e-05 / -2.4e-05) | Adams et al. 2021 |
| Orbital semimajor axis · AU | 0.009 (+0 / 0) | Dressing et al. 2017 |
| Eccentricity | 0.19 (+0.221175 / -0.152914) | Dressing et al. 2017 |
| Inclination · degrees | 90.6 (+8 / -7) | Adams et al. 2021 |
| Irradiation · Earth flux | 114 (+45 / -45) | Crossfield et al. 2016 |
| Equilibrium temperature · K | 2100 | Sanchis-Ojeda et al. 2015 |
| Stellar effective temperature · K | 3879 (+90 / -90) | Adams et al. 2021 |
| Stellar radius · Solar | 0.58 (+0.03 / -0.03) | Adams et al. 2021 |
| Stellar mass · Solar | 0.595292 (+0.059529 / -0.059529) | Dressing et al. 2017 |
| Stellar luminosity · log Solar | -1.0744 (+0.01092 / -0.0112) | Gaia DR2 |
| Stellar age · Gyr | Unknown | Not supplied |
| Stellar metallicity · dex | 0.032 (+0.12 / -0.12) | Adams et al. 2021 |
| Distance · pc | 243.836 (+2.7975 / -2.7975) | TICv8 |