Related papers: Limits on Clouds and Hazes for the TRAPPIST-1 Plan…
Although high energetic radiation from flares is a potential threat to exoplanet atmospheres and may lead to surface sterilization, it might also provide the extra energy for low-mass stars needed to trigger and sustain prebiotic chemistry.…
The star TRAPPIST-1 hosts a system of seven transiting, terrestrial exoplanets apparently in a resonant chain, at least some of which are in or near the Habitable Zone. Many have examined the roles of tides in this system, as tidal…
Atmospheric energy transport is central to the cooling of primordial magma oceans. Theoretical studies of atmospheres on lava planets have assumed that convection is the only process involved in setting the atmospheric temperature…
It is still unclear whether exoplanets in compact multiplanet systems such as TRAPPIST-1 are able to accrete large quantities of volatiles, grow to sufficient mass, and maintain robust atmospheres and hydrospheres. Previous estimates of…
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will enable the search for and characterization of terrestrial exoplanet atmospheres in the habitable zone via transmission spectroscopy. However, relatively little work has been done to use solar…
This paper presents a version of the HEXTOR energy balance model that has been configured for the study of habitable terrestrial planets orbiting low-mass stars. The model is validated for rapidly-rotating Earth-like planets using…
M dwarf stars, which have masses less than 60 per cent that of the Sun, make up 75 per cent of the population of the stars in the Galaxy [1]. The atmospheres of orbiting Earth-sized planets are observationally accessible via transmission…
Terrestrial exoplanets such as TRAPPIST-1e will be observed in a new capacity with JWST/NIRSpec, which is expected to be able to detect CO$_2$, CH$_4$, and O$_2$ signals, if present, with multiple co-added transit observations. The…
Numerous solar system atmospheres possess aerosols including the characteristic organic hazes of Titan and Pluto. Haze particles substantially impact atmospheric temperatures structures and may provide organic material to the surface of a…
As the first and till date the only one multiple planet hosting dwarf star that is sufficiently cool to form condensate cloud in it atmosphere, Trappist-1 provides unique opportunity to test the efficiency of image polarimetry as a tool to…
We report a search for excess absorption in the 1083.2 nm line of ortho (triplet) helium during transits of TOI-1807b and TOI-2076b, 1.25 and 2.5R$_{\rm Earth}$ planets on 0.55- and 10.4-day orbits around nearby $\sim$200~Myr-old K dwarf…
The Trappist-1 system contains seven roughly Earth-sized planets locked in a multi-resonant orbital configuration, which has enabled precise measurements of the planets' masses and constrained their compositions. Here we use the system's…
Most known terrestrial planets orbit small stars with radii less than 60% that of the Sun. Theoretical models predict that these planets are more vulnerable to atmospheric loss than their counterparts orbiting Sun-like stars. To determine…
Terrestrial planets with large water inventories are likely ubiquitous and will be among the first Earth-sized planets to be characterized with upcoming telescopes. It has previously been argued that waterworlds-particularly those…
The Great Oxidation Event (GOE), which marked the transition from an anoxic to an oxygenated atmosphere, occurred 2.4 billion years ago on Earth, several hundreds of millions of years after the emergence of oxygenic photosynthesis. This…
The increasing number of detailed exoplanet observations offers an opportunity to refine our analyses and interpretations. Here, we show that atmospheres that appear volatile-rich and/or cloudy may instead be helium-rich. As transmission…
We report our spectroscopic investigation of the transiting ice giant GJ 3470b's atmospheric transmission, and the first results of extrasolar planet observations from the new Keck/MOSFIRE spectrograph. We measure a planet/star radius ratio…
The upcoming launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) combined with the unique features of the TRAPPIST-1 planetary system should enable the young field of exoplanetology to enter into the realm of temperate Earth-sized worlds.…
The ubiquity of M dwarfs, combined with the relative ease of detecting terrestrial-mass planets around them, has made them prime targets for finding and characterising planets in the "Habitable Zone" (HZ). However, Kepler finds that…
Transmission spectra are differential measurements that utilize stellar illumination to probe transiting exoplanet atmospheres. Any spectral difference between the illuminating light source and the disk-integrated stellar spectrum due to…