50 research outputs found
Possible climates on terrestrial exoplanets
What kind of environment may exist on terrestrial planets around other stars?
In spite of the lack of direct observations, it may not be premature to
speculate on exoplanetary climates, for instance to optimize future telescopic
observations, or to assess the probability of habitable worlds. To first order,
climate primarily depends on 1) The atmospheric composition and the volatile
inventory; 2) The incident stellar flux; 3) The tidal evolution of the
planetary spin, which can notably lock a planet with a permanent night side.
The atmospheric composition and mass depends on complex processes which are
difficult to model: origins of volatile, atmospheric escape, geochemistry,
photochemistry. We discuss physical constraints which can help us to speculate
on the possible type of atmosphere, depending on the planet size, its final
distance for its star and the star type. Assuming that the atmosphere is known,
the possible climates can be explored using Global Climate Models analogous to
the ones developed to simulate the Earth as well as the other telluric
atmospheres in the solar system. Our experience with Mars, Titan and Venus
suggests that realistic climate simulators can be developed by combining
components like a "dynamical core", a radiative transfer solver, a
parametrisation of subgrid-scale turbulence and convection, a thermal ground
model, and a volatile phase change code. On this basis, we can aspire to build
reliable climate predictors for exoplanets. However, whatever the accuracy of
the models, predicting the actual climate regime on a specific planet will
remain challenging because climate systems are affected by strong positive
destabilizing feedbacks (such as runaway glaciations and runaway greenhouse
effect). They can drive planets with very similar forcing and volatile
inventory to completely different states.Comment: In press, Proceedings of the Royal Society A 31 pages, 6 figure
Mercury-T: a new code to study tidally evolving multi-planet systems: applications to Kepler-62
A large proportion of observed planetary systems contain several planets in a compact orbital configuration, and often harbor at least one close-in object. These systems are then most likely tidally evolving. We investigate how the effects of planet-planet interactions influence the tidal evolution of planets. We introduce for that purpose a new open-source addition to the Mercury N-body code, Mercury-T, which takes into account tides, general relativity and the effect of rotation-induced flattening in order to simulate the dynamical and tidal evolution of multi-planet systems. It uses a standard equilibrium tidal model, the constant time lag model. Besides, the evolution of the radius of several host bodies has been implemented (brown dwarfs, M-dwarfs of mass 0.1 M-circle dot, Sun-like stars, Jupiter). We validate the new code by comparing its output for one-planet systems to the secular equations results. We find that this code does respect the conservation of total angular momentum. We applied this new tool to the planetary system Kepler-62. We find that tides influence the stability of the system in some cases. We also show that while the four inner planets of the systems are likely to have slow rotation rates and small obliquities, the fifth planet could have a fast rotation rate and a high obliquity. This means that the two habitable zone planets of this system, Kepler-62e ad f are likely to have very different climate features, and this of course would influence their potential at hosting surface liquid water
Water Condensation Zones around Main Sequence Stars
Understanding the set of conditions that allow rocky planets to have liquid
water on their surface -- in the form of lakes, seas or oceans -- is a major
scientific step to determine the fraction of planets potentially suitable for
the emergence and development of life as we know it on Earth. This effort is
also necessary to define and refine the so-called "Habitable Zone" (HZ) in
order to guide the search for exoplanets likely to harbor remotely detectable
life forms. Until now, most numerical climate studies on this topic have
focused on the conditions necessary to maintain oceans, but not to form them in
the first place. Here we use the three-dimensional Generic Planetary Climate
Model (PCM), historically known as the LMD Generic Global Climate Model (GCM),
to simulate water-dominated planetary atmospheres around different types of
Main-Sequence stars. The simulations are designed to reproduce the conditions
of early ocean formation on rocky planets due to the condensation of the
primordial water reservoir at the end of the magma ocean phase. We show that
the incoming stellar radiation (ISR) required to form oceans by condensation is
always drastically lower than that required to vaporize oceans. We introduce a
Water Condensation Limit, which lies at significantly lower ISR than the inner
edge of the HZ calculated with three-dimensional numerical climate simulations.
This difference is due to a behavior change of water clouds, from low-altitude
dayside convective clouds to high-altitude nightside stratospheric clouds.
Finally, we calculated transit spectra, emission spectra and thermal phase
curves of TRAPPIST-1b, c and d with H2O-rich atmospheres, and compared them to
CO2 atmospheres and bare rock simulations. We show using these observables that
JWST has the capability to probe steam atmospheres on low-mass planets, and
could possibly test the existence of nightside water clouds.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysic
Enabling planetary science across light-years. Ariel Definition Study Report
Ariel, the Atmospheric Remote-sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey, was adopted as the fourth medium-class mission in ESA's Cosmic Vision programme to be launched in 2029. During its 4-year mission, Ariel will study what exoplanets are made of, how they formed and how they evolve, by surveying a diverse sample of about 1000 extrasolar planets, simultaneously in visible and infrared wavelengths. It is the first mission dedicated to measuring the chemical composition and thermal structures of hundreds of transiting exoplanets, enabling planetary science far beyond the boundaries of the Solar System. The payload consists of an off-axis Cassegrain telescope (primary mirror 1100 mm x 730 mm ellipse) and two separate instruments (FGS and AIRS) covering simultaneously 0.5-7.8 micron spectral range. The satellite is best placed into an L2 orbit to maximise the thermal stability and the field of regard. The payload module is passively cooled via a series of V-Groove radiators; the detectors for the AIRS are the only items that require active cooling via an active Ne JT cooler. The Ariel payload is developed by a consortium of more than 50 institutes from 16 ESA countries, which include the UK, France, Italy, Belgium, Poland, Spain, Austria, Denmark, Ireland, Portugal, Czech Republic, Hungary, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Estonia, and a NASA contribution
Identification of carbon dioxide in an exoplanet atmosphere
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a key chemical species that is found in a wide range of planetary atmospheres. In the context of exoplanets, CO2 is an indicator of the metal enrichment (that is, elements heavier than helium, also called âmetallicityâ), and thus the formation processes of the primary atmospheres of hot gas giants. It is also one of the most promising species to detect in the secondary atmospheres of terrestrial exoplanets. Previous photometric measurements of transiting planets with the Spitzer Space Telescope have given hints of the presence of CO2, but have not yielded definitive detections owing to the lack of unambiguous spectroscopic identification. Here we present the detection of CO2 in the atmosphere of the gas giant exoplanet WASP-39b from transmission spectroscopy observations obtained with JWST as part of the Early Release Science programme. The data used in this study span 3.0â5.5âmicrometres in wavelength and show a prominent CO2 absorption feature at 4.3âmicrometres (26-sigma significance). The overall spectrum is well matched by one-dimensional, ten-times solar metallicity models that assume radiativeâconvectiveâthermochemical equilibrium and have moderate cloud opacity. These models predict that the atmosphere should have water, carbon monoxide and hydrogen sulfide in addition to CO2, but little methane. Furthermore, we also tentatively detect a small absorption feature near 4.0âmicrometres that is not reproduced by these models
Could we constrain some major properties of hot Super-Earths with NIRSPEC-JWT spectra?
International audienc