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Register a new userAtmospheric reconnaissance of the habitable-zone Earth-sized planets orbiting TRAPPIST-1
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Seven temperate Earth-sized exoplanets readily amenable for atmospheric studies transit the nearby ultracool dwarf star TRAPPIST-1 (refs 1,2). Their atmospheric regime is unknown and could range from extended primordial hydrogen-dominated to depleted atmospheres (refs 3-6). Hydrogen in particular is a powerful greenhouse gas that may prevent the habitability of inner planets while enabling the habitability of outer ones (refs 6-8). An atmosphere largely dominated by hydrogen, if cloud-free, should yield prominent spectroscopic signatures in the near-infrared detectable during transits. Observations of the innermost planets have ruled out such signatures (ref 9). However, the outermost planets are more likely to have sustained such a Neptune-like atmosphere (refs 10,11). Here, we report observations for the four planets within or near the systems habitable zone, the circumstellar region where liquid water could exist on a planetary surface (refs 12-14). These planets do not exhibit prominent spectroscopic signatures at near-infrared wavelengths either, which rules out cloud-free hydrogen-dominated atmospheres for TRAPPIST-1 d, e and f, with significance of 8, 6 and 4 sigma, respectively. Such an atmosphere is instead not excluded for planet g. As high-altitude clouds and hazes are not expected in hydrogen-dominated atmospheres around planets with such insolation (refs 15,16), these observations further support their terrestrial and potentially habitable nature.
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The Kepler-1647 is a binary system with two Sun-type stars (approximately 1.22 and 0.97 Solar mass). It has the most massive circumbinary planet (1.52 Jupiter mass) with the longest orbital period (1,107.6 days) detected by the Kepler probe and is located within the habitable zone (HZ) of the system. In this work, we investigated the ability to form and house an Earth-sized planet within its HZ. First, we computed the limits of its HZ and performed numerical stability tests within that region. We found that HZ has three sub-regions that show stability, one internal, one co-orbital, and external to the host planet Kepler-1647b. Within the limits of these three regions, we performed numerical simulations of planetary formation. In the regions inner and outer to the planet, we used two different density profiles to explore different conditions of formation. In the co-orbital region, we used eight different values of total disc mass. We showed that many resonances are located within regions causing much of the disc material to be ejected before a planet is formed. Thus, the system might have two asteroid belts with Kirkwood gaps, similar to the Solar Systems main belt of asteroids. The co-orbital region proved to be extremely sensitive, not allowing the planet formation, but showing that this binary system has the capacity to have Trojan bodies. Finally, we looked for regions of stability for an Earth-sized moon. We found that there is stability for a moon with this mass up to 0.4 Hills radius from the host planet.
Ultracool dwarfs (UCD; $T_{rm eff}<sim3000~$K) cool to settle on the main sequence after $sim$1 Gyr. For brown dwarfs, this cooling never stops. Their habitable zone (HZ) thus sweeps inward at least during the first Gyr of their lives. Assuming they possess water, planets found in the HZ of UCDs have experienced a runaway greenhouse phase too hot for liquid water prior to entering the HZ. It has been proposed that such planets are desiccated by this hot early phase and enter the HZ as dry worlds. Here we model the water loss during this pre-HZ hot phase taking into account recent upper limits on the XUV emission of UCDs and using 1D radiation-hydrodynamic simulations. We address the whole range of UCDs but also focus on the planets recently found around the $0.08~M_odot$ dwarf TRAPPIST-1. Despite assumptions maximizing the FUV-photolysis of water and the XUV-driven escape of hydrogen, we find that planets can retain significant amounts of water in the HZ of UCDs, with a sweet spot in the $0.04$-$0.06~M_odot$ range. We also studied the TRAPPIST-1 system using observed constraints on the XUV-flux. We find that TRAPPIST-1b and c may have lost as much as 15 Earth Oceans and planet d -- which might be inside the HZ -- may have lost less than 1 Earth Ocean. Depending on their initial water contents, they could have enough water to remain habitable. TRAPPIST-1 planets are key targets for atmospheric characterization and could provide strong constraints on the water erosion around UCDs.
As a contribution to the study of the habitability of extrasolar planets, we implemented a 1-D Energy Balance Model (EBM), the simplest seasonal model of planetary climate, with new prescriptions for most physical quantities. Here we apply our EBM to investigate the surface habitability of planets with an Earth-like atmospheric composition but different levels of surface pressure. The habitability, defined as the mean fraction of the planets surface on which liquid water could exist, is estimated from the pressure-dependent liquid water temperature range, taking into account seasonal and latitudinal variations of surface temperature. By running several thousands of EBM simulations we generated a map of the habitable zone (HZ) in the plane of the orbital semi-major axis, a, and surface pressure, p, for planets in circular orbits around a Sun-like star. As pressure increases, the HZ becomes broader, with an increase of 0.25 AU in its radial extent from p=1/3 bar to p=3 bar. At low pressure, the habitability is low and varies with a; at high pressure, the habitability is high and relatively constant inside the HZ. We interpret these results in terms of the pressure dependence of the greenhouse effect, the effciency of horizontal heat transport, and the extent of the liquid water temperature range. Within the limits discussed in the paper, the results can be extended to planets in eccentric orbits around non-solar type stars. The main characteristics of the pressure-dependent HZ are modestly affected by variations of planetary properties, particularly at high pressure.
We present an XMM-Newton X-ray observation of TRAPPIST-1, which is an ultracool dwarf star recently discovered to host three transiting and temperate Earth-sized planets. We find the star is a relatively strong and variable coronal X-ray source with an X-ray luminosity similar to that of the quiet Sun, despite its much lower bolometric luminosity. We find L_x/L_bol=2-4x10^-4, with the total XUV emission in the range L_xuv/L_bol=6-9x10^-4, and XUV irradiation of the planets that is many times stronger than experienced by the present-day Earth. Using a simple energy-limited model we show that the relatively close-in Earth-sized planets, which span the classical habitable zone of the star, are subject to sufficient X-ray and EUV irradiation to significantly alter their primary and any secondary atmospheres. Understanding whether this high-energy irradiation makes the planets more or less habitable is a complex question, but our measured fluxes will be an important input to the necessary models of atmospheric evolution.
Since the discovery of the first extrasolar giant planets around Sun-like stars, evolving observational capabilities have brought us closer to the detection of true Earth analogues. The size of an exoplanet can be determined when it periodically passes in front of (transits) its parent star, causing a decrease in starlight proportional to its radius. The smallest exoplanet hitherto discovered has a radius 1.42 times that of the Earths radius (R Earth), and hence has 2.9 times its volume. Here we report the discovery of two planets, one Earth-sized (1.03R Earth) and the other smaller than the Earth (0.87R Earth), orbiting the star Kepler-20, which is already known to host three other, larger, transiting planets. The gravitational pull of the new planets on the parent star is too small to measure with current instrumentation. We apply a statistical method to show that the likelihood of the planetary interpretation of the transit signals is more than three orders of magnitude larger than that of the alternative hypothesis that the signals result from an eclipsing binary star. Theoretical considerations imply that these planets are rocky, with a composition of iron and silicate. The outer planet could have developed a thick water vapour atmosphere.
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