We report the detection of GJ 832c, a super-Earth orbiting near the inner edge of the habitable zone of GJ 832, an M dwarf previously known to host a Jupiter […]
extrasolar
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets
Transit and Radial Velocity Survey Efficiency Comparison for a Habitable Zone Earth
Transit and radial velocity searches are two techniques for identifying nearby extrasolar planets to Earth that transit bright stars. Identifying a robust sample of these exoplanets around bright stars for […]
Posted inAstrochemistry, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones
Chemical Modeling of Exoplanet Atmospheres
The past twenty years have revealed the diversity of planets that exist in the Universe. It turned out that most of exoplanets are different from the planets of our Solar […]
Posted inBiosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets
Detecting Industrial Pollution in the Atmospheres of Earth-like Exoplanets
Detecting biomarkers, such as molecular oxygen, in the atmospheres of transiting exoplanets has been a major focus in the search for alien life. We point out that in addition to […]
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets
Exoplanet Population Inference and the Abundance of Earth Analogs from Noisy, Incomplete Catalogs
No true extrasolar Earth analog is known. Hundreds of planets have been found around Sun-like stars that are either Earth-sized but on shorter periods, or else on year-long orbits but […]
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets
Titan Solar Occultation Observations Reveal Transit Spectra of a Hazy World
High altitude clouds and hazes are integral to understanding exoplanet observations, and are proposed to explain observed featureless transit spectra. However, it is difficult to make inferences from these data […]
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets
Planet Bonanza Hints of Worlds Similar to Our Own
For planet hunters, this has been a bountiful year. A team lead of astronomers at the SETI Institute and NASA Ames Research Center have used data from NASA’s Kepler space […]
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets
Signatures of Cloud, Temperature, and Gravity From Spectra of the Closest Brown Dwarfs
We present medium resolution optical and NIR spectral data for components of the newly discovered WISE J104915.57-531906.1AB (Luhman 16AB) brown dwarf binary. The optical spectra reveal strong 6708 A Li […]
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones
Magnetospheric Structure and Atmospheric Joule Heating of Habitable Planets Orbiting M-dwarf Stars
We study the magnetospheric structure and the ionospheric Joule Heating of planets orbiting M-dwarf stars in the habitable zone using a set of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) models. The stellar wind solution […]
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets
Three Regimes of Extrasolar Planets Inferred From Host Star Metallicities
Approximately half of the extrasolar planets (exoplanets) with radii less than four Earth radii are in orbits with short periods. Despite their sheer abundance, the compositions of such planets are […]