55 Cnc e Archives

Mass mixing ratios and condensate/cloud of the O2/CO2 atmosphere - model 5. The 15 major gas phase species are shown in the left hand side column and the solid and liquid species in the right hand side column.

Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

Hot And cloudy: High Temperature Clouds In Super-Earths And Sub-Neptunes

by Keith CowingJanuary 26, 2026January 26, 2026

JWST observations provide for the first time evidence for an atmosphere on a rocky exoplanet – 55 Cnc e. The atmosphere of 55 Cnc e is hot with Teq>2000K and […]

Cosmic Shoreline for all known planetary systems orbiting M-dwarf-type stars. The black dashed-dotted line is our newly proposed Empirical Cosmic Shoreline (ECS), same as in Figure 1. The gray points mark the systems whose atmospheres have not been studied; the orange ones mark the planets with reported strong non-detections; and the green ones mark the planets with a (tentative) atmosphere detection. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report, Stellar Cartography

An Empirical Determination Of The Cosmic Shoreline

by Keith CowingAugust 19, 2025August 19, 2025

The Cosmic Shoreline concept was introduced as a way to separate planets with and without atmosphere, based on the relationship between the cumulative instellation and the escape velocity observed in […]

The sweep of Twinkle’s FOR and location of currently known exoplanets (red) and TESS objects of interest (blue). -- astro-ph.IM

Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Missions & Hardware, Press Release

Atmospheric Characterisation With The Twinkle Space Telescope Following Advances From JWST Observations

by Keith CowingAugust 15, 2025August 15, 2025

The Twinkle Space Telescope is a satellite designed for spectroscopic observations of a wide range of extrasolar and solar system objects.

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Lava / magma ocean / Volcanic Worlds, Status Report

Detectability Of Oxygen Fugacity Regimes In The Magma Ocean World 55 Cancri e At High Spectral Resolution

by Keith CowingMarch 27, 2025March 27, 2025

Ultra-short Period exoplanets (USPs) like 55 Cnc e, hosting dayside magma oceans, present unique opportunities to study surface-atmosphere interactions. The composition of a vaporised mineral atmosphere enveloping the dayside is […]

Key elements in the magma temperature-cloud feedback that drives the oscillations in cloudiness and surface temperature. Changes in the color of the magma ocean surface indicate variations in surface temperature (brighter denotes higher temperature). Changes in the brightness of the clouds represent variations in the shortwave opacity of the cloud (brighter denotes higher optical depth). The thicknesses of downward yellow rays indicate shortwave radiation before and after being attenuated by the clouds. The thicknesses of the blue arrows in the upper-right direction indicate ascending vapor fluxes. -- astro-ph.EP

Astrogeology, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Lava / magma ocean / Volcanic Worlds, Status Report

Extreme Weather Variability on Hot Rocky Exoplanet 55 Cancri e Explained by Magma Temperature-Cloud Feedback

by Keith CowingSeptember 26, 2024September 26, 2024

Observations of the ultra-short period rocky exoplanet 55 Cancri e (55 Cnc e) indicate that the planet’s dayside infrared radiation fluctuates by a factor of at least six on sub-weekly […]

Erupting vents on Mauna Loa's northeast rift zone near Pu‘u ‘Ula‘ula (Red Hill) on March 25, 1984, sent massive ‘a‘ā lava flows down the rift toward Kulani. -- USGS

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Caves, Craters, Mountains, Subsurface, Lava Tubes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Lava / magma ocean / Volcanic Worlds, Status Report

LavAtmos 2.0: Incorporating Volatiles Species in Vaporization Models

by Keith CowingAugust 21, 2024August 21, 2024

Due to strong irradiation, hot rocky exoplanets are able to sustain lava oceans. Direct interaction between these oceans and overlying atmospheres can provide insight into planetary interiors.

Self-consistent atmosphere models of 55 Cnc e. The NIRCam relative eclipse depths are offset to a mean depth of 60 ppm. Previous Spitzer measurements 24 are shown in gray. The black dashed lines are blackbody models at the temperatures indicated in the plot. The vaporized-rock model was simulated using the rocky composition that corresponds to the bulk silicate Earth; using other plausible rock compositions results in qualitatively similar results (Extended Data Fig. 7). The atmosphere models are simulated either in a parameter exploration of CHONSP elemental abundances or with the assumption of volatile equilibrium with an underlying magma ocean. The models shown are selected from those that provide adequate fits to the data. The volatile atmosphere models with enhanced outgassing of rock-forming elements can cause substantial changes in the eclipse depth and the emission spectra. The models are smoothed to R=100 for the clarity of illustration. Model results binned to the same wavelength channels as the MIRI data are shown as colored points. The oxygen fugacity (fO2 ) describes the redox condition of the magma and fO2=IW-4 means a condition more reduced than the iron-wustite (IW) buffer by 4 orders of magnitude. The full sets of atmospheric models are described in Methods and Extended Data Figs. 8 and 9. -- astro-ph.EP

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Lava / magma ocean / Volcanic Worlds, Status Report

A Secondary Atmosphere On The Rocky Exoplanet 55 Cancri e

by Keith CowingMay 11, 2024

Characterizing rocky exoplanets is a central endeavor of astronomy, and yet the search for atmospheres on rocky exoplanets has hitherto resulted in either tight upper limits on the atmospheric mass […]

Detrended flux measurements of 55 Cnc e, phase-folded at the planet orbital period. The top panel shows the relative flux, while the bottom panel presents the residuals in ppm. The plots show a portion of the phase centred around the transit. Red squares represent binned data. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

Investigating The Visible Phase Curve Variability Of 55 Cnc e

by Keith CowingJuly 13, 2023July 13, 2023

55 Cnc e is an ultra-short period super-Earth transiting a Sun-like star. Past observations in the optical range detected a time-variable flux modulation phased with the planetary orbital period whose […]