Related papers: Can close-in giant exoplanets preserve detectable …
The magnetic activity of planet-hosting stars is an important factor to estimate the atmospheric stability of close-in exoplanets and the age of their host stars. It has long been speculated that close-in exoplanets can influence the…
Moons of giant planets may represent an alternative to the classical picture of habitable worlds. They may exist within the circumstellar habitable zone of a parent star, and through tidal energy dissipation they may also offer alternative…
Many of exoplanetary systems consist of more than one planet and the study of planetary orbits with respect to their long-term stability is very interesting. Furthermore, many exoplanets seem to be locked in a mean-motion resonance (MMR),…
All-sky imaging surveys have identified several dozen isolated planetary-mass objects (IPMOs), far away from any star. Here, we examine the prospects for detecting transiting moons around these objects. We expect transiting moons to be…
In the search for moons around extrasolar planets, astronomers are confronted with a stunning observation. Although 3400 of the 4500 exoplanets were discovered with the transit method and although there are well over 25 times as many moons…
We examine the ability of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) to detect and improve our understanding of planetary systems in the Kepler field. By modeling the expected transits of all confirmed and candidate planets detected…
Over two decades of exoplanetology have yielded thousands of discoveries, yet some types of systems are yet to be observed. Circumstellar planets around one star in a binary have been found, but not for tight binaries (< 5 AU).…
Terrestrial planets are thought to be the result of a vast number of gravitational interactions and collisions between smaller bodies. We use numerical simulations to show that practically identical initial conditions result in a wide array…
The internal thermal and magnetic evolution of rocky exoplanets is critical to their habitability. We focus on the thermal-orbital evolution of Earth-mass planets around low mass M stars whose radiative habitable zone overlaps with the…
We demonstrate the ability of existing and planned telescopes, on the ground and in space, to directly image tidally heated exomoons orbiting gas-giant exoplanets. Tidally heated exomoons can plausibly be far more luminous than their host…
In this paper, we study the behavior of a pair of co-orbital planets, both orbiting a central star on the same plane and undergoing tidal interactions. Our goal is to investigate final orbital configurations of the planets, initially…
The orbits of short-period exoplanets are sculpted by tidal dissipation. However, the mechanisms and associated efficiencies of these tidal interactions are poorly constrained. We present robust constraints on the tidal quality factors of…
Giant planets in the habitable zone may host exomoons with conditions conducive to life. In this paper we describe a method by which the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) could detect such moons: broadband reflected-light lunar eclipses…
We investigate the habitability of hypothethical moons orbiting known exoplanets. This study focuses on big, rocky exomoons that are capable of maintaining a significant atmosphere. To determine their habitability, we calculate the incident…
A large fraction of known exoplanets have short orbital periods where tidal excitation of gravity waves within the host star causes the planets' orbits to decay. We study the effects of tidal resonance locking, in which the planet locks…
At present, because of observational selection effects, we know of no exoplanetary systems with any planetary masses close to that of the Earth. We have therefore used computer models to see whether such planets could be dynamically stable…
Since the discovery of the first exoplanets, those most adequate for life to begin and evolve have been sought. Due to observational bias, however, most of the discovered planets so far are gas giants, precluding their habitability.…
In this paper, the detectability of habitable exomoons orbiting around giant planets in M-dwarf systems using Transit Timing Variations (TTVs) and Transit Timing Durations (TDVs) with Kepler-class photometry is investigated. Light curves of…
The number of exoplanets detected using gravitational microlensing technique is currently larger than 200, which enables population studies. Microlensing is uniquely sensitive to low-mass planets orbiting at separations of several…
We have shown that Earth-mass planets could survive in variously restricted regions of the habitable zones (HZs) of most of a sample of nine of the 93 main-sequence exoplanetary systems confirmed by May 2003. In a preliminary extrapolation…