super Earth Archives

Light curve of KMT-2023-BLG-1866. The lower panel provides a comprehensive view of the light curve, while the upper panel offers a magnified view of the top region. The color of each data point corresponds to the respective dataset indicated in the legend. The curve drawn over data points is a single-lens single source model. -- astro-ph.EP

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

KMT-2023-BLG-1866Lb: Microlensing Super-Earth Around An M Dwarf Host

by Keith CowingMay 14, 2024May 14, 2024

We investigate the nature of the short-term anomaly that appears in the lensing light curve of KMT-2023-BLG-1866. The anomaly was only partly covered due to its short duration, less than […]

(Left) Measured exoplanet radii as a function of mass relative to idealized composition curves. (Right) Radii versus density deviation relative to Earth-like. Colored symbols represent the best-characterized exoplanets with mass uncertainties below 50% and radius uncertainties below 30%. Data points from Otegi et al. (2020), Lacedelli et al. (2022), Luque & Pallé (2022), DiamondLowe et al. (2022), and Piaulet et al. (2023). Mass-radius relations from Zeng et al. (2019) and Dorn & Lichtenberg (2021). Diamond symbols with attached names indicate planets with high transmission (TSM) or emission (ESM) metrics, which makes these planets favourable targets for observational characterization: TSM > 90 if Rp ≥ 1.5 REarth, otherwise TSM > 10, or ESM > 7.5 (Kempton et al. 2018). The translation of dayside irradiation to equilibrium temperature assumes efficient global heat redistribution and a constant bond albedo of 0.5. Color deviations and trend interpretation are discussed in the main text. -- astro-ph.EP

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Super-Earths and Earth-like Exoplanets

by Keith CowingMay 9, 2024

In the last few years astronomical surveys have expanded the reach of planetary science into the realm of small and dense extrasolar worlds. These share a number of characteristics with […]

This artist’s concept shows what the exoplanet 55 Cancri e could look like. Observations by NASA’s Webb telescope suggest it may be surrounded by an atmosphere rich in carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide, which could have bubbled up from of an ocean of magma on the planet’s surface. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Ralf Crawford (STScI)

Astrogeology, Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release

Webb Hints At A Possible Atmosphere Surrounding Rocky Exoplanet 55 Cancri e

by Keith CowingMay 8, 2024May 8, 2024

While the planet is too hot to be habitable, detecting its atmosphere could provide insights into the early conditions of Earth, Venus, and Mars.

Empirical, non-parametric radius distribution of planets hosted by late K- and early M-type dwarfs observed by Kepler and assigned ages based on rotation, corrected for detection efficiency. The black line is the total distribution (113 planets), while the red and blue lines are the distributions for the halves of the sample with rotation-based ages younger and older than the median age of 3.86 Gyr, respectively. Shaded regions denote 68% confidence interval determined from Monte Carlo sampling with replacement. The vertical magenta lines mark the location (and uncertainty) of the radius valley using Eqn. 11 in Ho & Van Eylen (2023) for the sample’s median mass of 0.59 M⊙ and median period of 7.1 days. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report, Stellar Cartography

The Radius Distribution Of M dwarf-hosted Planets And Its Evolution

by Keith CowingApril 18, 2024April 18, 2024

M dwarf stars are not only the most promising hosts for detection and characterization of small and potentially habitable planets, they provide leverage relative to solar-type stars to test models […]

SVD/PCA based detrending process and the effect of model reprocessing for order number 11 of Night 1 of CARMENES observation. (a) Data after calibration through CARACAL, (b) After SVD/PCA based detrending and strong residual masking - the orange line shows the cross-section along which the spectra for (e) is drawn, (c) Nominal exoplanet model signal that is to be injected into noiseless data matrix before reprocessing - the black line represents the cross-section for drawing the spectrum in (f), (d) Reprocessed model signal showing the model signal + artefacts in the out-of-transit phases - blue is the cross-section for drawing (g) and reddish brown for (h), (e) Cross-section at mid-transit time (Phase = 0) for the processed and normalised data in (b) showing variations around 1.0, (f) Same as (e) but for the nominal model signal in (c), (g) Same as (e) but for the reprocessed model signal in (d). The differences between (f) and (g) notably in the line depths and wing shapes illustrate the effect of the SVD/PCA based detrending procedure on the the model signal and by definition any actual signal that would be present in the data, (h) Cross-section at an out-of-transit time (Phase ≈ 0.02) showcasing the nature of the artefacts caused due to model reprocessing with a similar scale as in (g). -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

Constraints On Atmospheric Water Abundance and Cloud Deck Pressure in the Warm Neptune GJ 3470 b via CARMENES Transmission Spectroscopy

by Keith CowingApril 11, 2024April 11, 2024

Observations of cooler atmospheres of super-Earths and Neptune sized objects often show flat transmission spectra.

Radius valley fit as a function of the stellar mass (blue line with errors in light-blue) for all our synthetic planets (colour-coded as a function of the water mass fraction). Dots correspond to the nominal output, diamonds to collisions. The green dashed line with the light-green shaded area show the best fit found by Petigura et al. (2022), the violet dashed line and the lilac shaded area represent the results found by Berger et al. (2020), and the mustard dashed line and the light-mustard shaded area represents the best fit by Luque & Pallé (2022). Our best fit was found using gapfit(Loyd et al. 2020). -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Status Report, Stellar Cartography

A Fading Radius Valley Towards M-dwarfs, A Persistent Density Valley Across Stellar Types

by Keith CowingApril 3, 2024April 3, 2024

The radius valley separating super-Earths from mini-Neptunes is a fundamental benchmark for theories of planet formation and evolution. Observations show that the location of the radius valley decreases with decreasing […]

Top, Upper Panels: Individual visit transmission spectra for ExoTiC-JEDI (left, purples) and Eureka! (right, greens). Lower Panel: Difference between individual visit transmission spectra for ExoTiC-JEDI (left) and Eureka! (right). On average, the ExoTiC-JEDI reductions for visit 1 and visit 2 are consistent to within 39 ppm, while the Eureka! reductions agree to within 48 ppm. The ExoTiC-JEDI and Eureka! reductions are consistent with each other to within the median transit depth uncertainty for both visit 1 and visit 2. Bottom, Upper Panel: Weighted average transmission spectrum from the two visits from the ExoTiC-JEDI (purple) and Eureka! (light green) reductions and joint fit transmission spectrum from the Eureka! reduction (dark green). Lower Panel: Difference between each of the combined ExoTiC-JEDI and Eureka! transmission spectra in ppm. As the difference between the two Eureka! methods is less the 5 ppm (black line), the two ExoTiC-JEDI– Eureka! lines are difficult to distinguish (coloured lines). On average, the combined visit Eureka! and ExoTiC-JEDI spectra are consistent to within 10 ppm. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

JWST COMPASS: NIRSpec/G395H Transmission Observations of the Super-Earth TOI-836b

by Keith CowingApril 2, 2024April 2, 2024

We present two transit observations of the ~870K, 1.7RE super-Earth TOI-836b with JWST NIRSpec/G395H, resulting in a 2.8-5.2μm transmission spectrum. Using two different reduction pipelines, we obtain a median transit […]

We show the transmission spectrum for each reduction in the top panel and the differences between the reductions (in units of sigma) in the bottom panel. All three of our reductions agree per-point, at the ∼2σ level or better, with a median difference of 6ppm. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gas Giants, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

JWST COMPASS: A NIRSpec/G395H Transmission Spectrum Of The Sub-Neptune TOI-836c

by Keith CowingApril 2, 2024

Planets between the sizes of Earth and Neptune are the most common in the Galaxy, bridging the gap between the terrestrial and giant planets in our Solar System.

Comparison between the observed planetary spectrum (black dots) and the best fit for a secondary atmosphere dominated by H2O (blue) and one dominated by CH4 (red), without clouds. The green line represents the flat model. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

A Reanalysis Of The LHS 1140 b Atmosphere Observed With The Hubble Space Telescope

by Keith CowingApril 1, 2024April 1, 2024

The super-Earth LHS 1140 b is an interesting target for atmospheric observations since it is close to the habitable zone of its star and falls in the gap of the […]

Top Left: The co-added sum of 15 Keck NIRC2 narrow camera images, each with an exposure time of 60 seconds. The target is indicated with a square outline. Top Right: Zoomed image of the MB07192 blended source and lens stars. The magnitude of the separation in this epoch is 29.3 ± 1.1 mas. Bottom Left: The residual image from a single-star PSF fit with DAOPHOT. A clear signal is seen due to the blended stellar profiles. Bottom Right: The residual image for a simultaneous two-star PSF fit, showing a significantly improved subtraction. The color bar represents the pixel intensity (or counts) in the bottom panel residual images. -- astro-ph.EP

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

Unveiling MOA-2007-BLG-192: An M Dwarf Hosting a Likely Super-Earth

by Keith CowingMarch 20, 2024March 20, 2024

We present an analysis of high angular resolution images of the microlensing target MOA-2007-BLG-192 using Keck adaptive optics and the Hubble Space Telescope.

super Earth

KMT-2023-BLG-1866Lb: Microlensing Super-Earth Around An M Dwarf Host

Super-Earths and Earth-like Exoplanets

Webb Hints At A Possible Atmosphere Surrounding Rocky Exoplanet 55 Cancri e

The Radius Distribution Of M dwarf-hosted Planets And Its Evolution

Constraints On Atmospheric Water Abundance and Cloud Deck Pressure in the Warm Neptune GJ 3470 b via CARMENES Transmission Spectroscopy

A Fading Radius Valley Towards M-dwarfs, A Persistent Density Valley Across Stellar Types

JWST COMPASS: NIRSpec/G395H Transmission Observations of the Super-Earth TOI-836b

JWST COMPASS: A NIRSpec/G395H Transmission Spectrum Of The Sub-Neptune TOI-836c

A Reanalysis Of The LHS 1140 b Atmosphere Observed With The Hubble Space Telescope

Unveiling MOA-2007-BLG-192: An M Dwarf Hosting a Likely Super-Earth

On The Foundations Of Anthropic Reasoning: Implications For Life Across The Universe

NASA Curation Community Conversation Webinar

The Atmospheric Chemistry and Surface Interactions on Mars (ACSIOM) Workshop 2025

An ALMA View On Molecular Complexity: Water, Methanol, And Methyl Formate In The HD 100546 And IRS 48 Disks

The Occurrence of Circumbinary Planets Around TESS M-dwarf Eclipsing Binaries