TRAPPIST-1 Archives

Left : combined transit light curves of the TRAPPIST-1 planets measured by Spitzer at 4.5 µm Source: open-source (arXiv) version of Ducrot et al. (2020). Right: Transit Timing Variations (TTVs, orange/red error bars) of TRAPPIST-1 planets compared to the best-fit 8-body dynamical model (blue/green lines). Source: open-source (arXiv) version of Agol et al. (2021). -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Status Report, TRAPPIST-1

TRAPPIST-1 And Its Compact System Of Temperate Rocky Planets

by Keith CowingJanuary 24, 2024January 23, 2024

The TRAPPIST-1 system is comprised of seven Earth-sized rocky planets in small orbits around a Jupiter-sized ultracool dwarf star 12 parsec away.

An artistic representation of the “hot Saturn” exoplanet, HAT-P-18 b. CREDIT NASA/Eyes on Exoplanets - NASA

Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Press Release, TRAPPIST-1

Hot Saturn Exoplanet HAT-P-18 b And Its Parent Star

by Keith CowingJanuary 11, 2024January 10, 2024

Led by researchers from Université de Montréal’s Trottier Institute for Research on Exoplanets (iREx), a team of astronomers has harnessed the power of the revolutionary James Webb Space Webb Telescope […]

atmospheric abundances for Venus, Earth and Mars.

Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release, TRAPPIST-1, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

A Carbon-lite Atmosphere Could Be A Sign Of Water And Life On Other Terrestrial Planets

by Keith CowingDecember 29, 2023December 29, 2023

Scientists at MIT, the University of Birmingham, and elsewhere say that astronomers’ best chance of finding liquid water, and even life on other planets, is to look for the absence, […]

Explosive cryovolcanism in the form of geyser-like plumes on two of our solar system's ocean worlds. Left: Cryovolcanic eruptions at the south pole of Saturn's moon Enceladus (credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI). Right: Hubble Space Telescope UV observations of cryovolcanic eruptions at the south pole of Jupiter's moon Europa (credit: NASA/L. Roth). By facilitating the transport of liquid water and energy between their interiors and surfaces, similar activity could create habitable environments on cold ocean planets. - NASA/Astrophysical Journal

Astrogeology, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Press Release, Proxima Centauri, TRAPPIST-1, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Some Icy Exoplanets May Have Habitable Oceans And Geysers

by Keith CowingDecember 13, 2023

A NASA study expands the search for life beyond our solar system by indicating that 17 exoplanets (worlds outside our solar system) could have oceans of liquid water, an essential […]

Internal ocean probabilities of the investigated exoplanets. The colour bar depicts the probability of each planet having a liquid water reservoir in its interior. Red colours imply a high probability, while planets with dark blue circles are less likely to have internal oceans. The HZ, shown as a green band only for illustrative purposes, was calculated based on stellar parameters from theoretical stellar evolution models. -- astro-ph.EP

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Proxima Centauri, Status Report, TRAPPIST-1, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Water Content Of Rocky Exoplanets In The Habitable Zone

by Keith CowingDecember 4, 2023December 4, 2023

In this study we investigated the interiors of rocky exoplanets in order to identify those that may have large quantities of water.

Comparison of the transmission spectrum (at 1 cm−1 resolution, R = 10,000 at 1 μm) for TRAPPIST-1 e with the temperature and gas abundance profiles of the true Earth (cloudy Earth orbiting a G dwarf; cyan line), which is not photochemically self-consistent with the spectrum of TRAPPIST-1, vs. the cloudy preindustrial Earth case, which is photochemically self-consistent with the spectrum of TRAPPIST-1 and has similar clouds (dark-blue line). For the same surface flux, the self-consistent preindustrial Earth produces much stronger CH4 features owing to higher atmospheric abundances under favorable chemistry driven by the TRAPPIST-1 stellar spectrum. The CO2 features for our self-consistent Earth are larger only as a result of requiring a higher abundance to remain temperate. -- Planetary Science Journal

Astronomy & Telescopes, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report, TRAPPIST-1

Searching For Biosignature Gases With The James Webb Space Telescope

by Keith CowingDecember 3, 2023December 2, 2023

NASA-supported researchers have assessed the capabilities of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to search for gases in planetary atmospheres that could be signs of life.

We select 10 and 5 candidate planets around nearby stars for ELT/HARMONI and ELT/METIS, respectively. As the spatial resolution of ELT/HARMONI is smaller than the plotting range, we only show spatial resolution for ELT/METIS as the vertical dotted blue line. Planets located to the right of the dotted line are suitable planets for ELT/METIS. All colored points are suitable planets for ELT/HARMONI. The size of the colored point is proportional to the planet radius. The color of the point is based on the equilibrium temperature. All colored data points are the candidate planets listed in Table 1. Selection criteria can be found in §2.1. The gray points are other exoplanets from NEA that are less suitable for direct imaging with ELT. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Proxima Centauri, Status Report, TRAPPIST-1

Detecting Biosignatures in Nearby Rocky Exoplanets using High-Contrast Imaging and Medium-Resolution Spectroscopy with Extremely Large Telescope

by Keith CowingNovember 30, 2023November 30, 2023

In the upcoming decades, one of the primary objectives in exoplanet science is to search for habitable planets and signs of extraterrestrial life in the universe.

Comparing TRAPPIST-1 planets to Solar System planets (left) and likely rocky exoplanets already observed or planned to be observed by JWST in Cycle 1 and 2 (right). Incident flux is plotted against escape velocity, so that planets in the top left are less likely to retain atmospheres, and planets in the bottom right are more likely to retain atmospheres. Stellar temperature, represented by color, may also play a role in atmosphere retention. Black Xs are placed on the labeled exoplanets which have already been observed to have no thick atmosphere. The gray line in the right panel is the “cosmic shoreline” (Finc ∝ vesc 4 ) presented in Zahnle & Catling (2017). -- astro-ph.EP

Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Status Report, TRAPPIST-1

The Carbon-Deficient Evolution Of TRAPPIST-1c

by Keith CowingNovember 29, 2023November 29, 2023

Transiting planets orbiting M dwarfs provide the best opportunity to study the atmospheres of rocky planets with current facilities.

Tracing a link between two neighbour planet at regular time interval along their orbits, creates a pattern unique to each couple. The six planets of the HD110067 system create together a mesmerising geometric pattern due to their resonance-chain. CREDIT Thibaut Roger/NCCR PlanetS

Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Press Release, TRAPPIST-1

Six Planets Orbit HD110067 System In A Harmonic Rhythm

by Keith CowingNovember 29, 2023April 14, 2026

An international collaboration between astronomers using the CHEOPS and TESS space satellites, including NCCR PlanetS members from the University of Bern and the University of Geneva, have found a key […]

Location of FRL-specific residues in FRL-PSI. The structure of FRL-PSI from F. thermalis PCC 7521 is shown. This figure corresponds to the multiple sequence alignment shown in Supplementary Figure 6. Yellow spheres represent residues that are FRL-specific and are conserved in the ancestral sequence. Green spheres represent FRL-specific residues that are not conserved in the ancestral sequence. Chl f-binding sites that are conserved among the current FRL-PSI structures are shown with a pink glow and are labeled with bold font on each of the surface views (e.g., site B30). Chl f-binding sites that are observed to be species-specific based on the current structures are labeled with regular font (e.g., site B19). In the top left panel, the FRL-specific subunits are additionally labeled. The four clusters of FRL-specific residues are labeled c1 through c4. -- Frontiers/Queen Mary University of London

Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Origin & Evolution of Life, Plant Biology, Press Release, Proxima Centauri, Space Agriculture, TRAPPIST-1

A Spectrum Of Possibilities: Insights Into The Evolution Of Far-red Light Photosynthesis

by Keith CowingNovember 28, 2023November 28, 2023

A collaborative study led by Dr. Christopher Gisriel at Yale University and Dr. Tanai Cardona at Queen Mary University of London, published in Frontiers in Plant Science, offers new insight […]

TRAPPIST-1

TRAPPIST-1 And Its Compact System Of Temperate Rocky Planets

Hot Saturn Exoplanet HAT-P-18 b And Its Parent Star

A Carbon-lite Atmosphere Could Be A Sign Of Water And Life On Other Terrestrial Planets

Some Icy Exoplanets May Have Habitable Oceans And Geysers

Water Content Of Rocky Exoplanets In The Habitable Zone

Searching For Biosignature Gases With The James Webb Space Telescope

Detecting Biosignatures in Nearby Rocky Exoplanets using High-Contrast Imaging and Medium-Resolution Spectroscopy with Extremely Large Telescope

The Carbon-Deficient Evolution Of TRAPPIST-1c

Six Planets Orbit HD110067 System In A Harmonic Rhythm

A Spectrum Of Possibilities: Insights Into The Evolution Of Far-red Light Photosynthesis

Giving NASA’s SciX A Quick Astrobiology Roadtest

An Ultraviolet Instrument On The Habitable Worlds Observatory: Considerations and Capability Trades On The Multi-Object, Integral-field, and High-resolution Modes Of A Potential UVI

The Hydrological Cycle and Circulation of Tidally-Locked Planets with A Finite Moisture Inventory

Fermentation Heterotrophy Can Reproduce Enceladus’s H2 And CH4 Under Limited Serpentinization

Perseverance Mars Rover Sets Off-World Record for Total Distance Driven