super Earth Archives

Dynamical evolution of planets in one of the typical systems that underwent several late dynamical instabilities after the gas dispersal. The plots show the temporal evolution (20 Myr) of planetary bodies, specifically their semimajor axes, masses, eccentricities, and orbital inclinations. Each line color represents an individual object; however, the color is random in each plot. The dashed black line shows the estimated time of the gas dissipation at ∼ 8 Myr. For better visualization, the panels on the left (semimajor axes and masses) show the evolution of all bodies with masses > 0.1 M⊕, and the panels on the right (eccentricities and orbital inclinations) show only bodies with masses > 0.5 M⊕. -- astro-ph.EP

Astrogeology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Status Report

Forming Rocky Exoplanets Around K-dwarf Stars

by Keith CowingAugust 14, 2023August 14, 2023

How multiple close-in super-Earths form around stars with masses lower than that of the Sun is still an open issue.

Mantle temperature field and velocity field of superEarth 55 Cancri e for the reference model. High velocities (larger than three times the mean mantle velocity) are plotted with a red arrow. The magma ocean is indicated in red (fully molten) and orange (partially molten). -- astro-ph.EP

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

Interior Dynamics Of Super-Earth 55 Cancri e

by Keith CowingAugust 3, 2023May 11, 2024

The ultra-short-period super-Earth 55 Cancri e has a measured radius of 1.8 Earth radii. Previous thermal phase curve observations suggest a strong temperature contrast between the dayside and nightside of […]

The 54 near-resonant planetary pairs in our sample exhibit an increased propensity for uniform planetary sizes as compared to the 392 non-resonant pairs. 10% of the non-resonant pairs lie above the maximum Gini value of the near-resonant population (GR = 0.38). The majority (∼ 57%) of near-resonant pairs assume extremely highuniformity configurations (GR ≤ 0.1), while only 43% of near-resonant pairs occupy the same regime. Gray lines represent smoothed 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, and 90th percentile regression curves for the global ζ2,1 − GR sample generated via a constrained B-splines smoothing algorithm (COBS, Ng & Maechler 2007; Ng & Maechler 2022). We note a pronounced rise in both the 75th and 90th percentile curves with increasing |ζ2,1|, demonstrating a tendency for the most nonuniform pairs to exist further from MMR, regardless of any binary classification scheme. -- astro-ph.EP

Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Status Report

Enhanced Size Uniformity for Near-Resonant Planets

by Keith CowingJuly 31, 2023

Super-Earths within the same close-in, compact planetary system tend to exhibit a striking degree of uniformity in their radius, mass, and orbital spacing, and this ‘peas-in-a-pod’ phenomenon itself serves to […]

This artist's illustration shows a planet (dark silhouette) passing in front of the red dwarf star AU Microscopii. The planet is so close to the eruptive star a ferocious blast of stellar wind and blistering ultraviolet radiation is heating the planet's hydrogen atmosphere, causing it to escape into space. Four times Earth's diameter, the planet is slowly evaporating its atmosphere, which stretches out linearly along its orbital path. This process may eventually leave behind a rocky core. The illustration is based on measurements made by the Hubble Space Telescope. Credits: NASA, ESA, and Joseph Olmsted (STScI)

Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Press Release, Space Weather & Heliophysics

A Young Super-Earth Orbiting Red Dwarf AU Microscopii Is Evaporating

by Keith CowingJuly 29, 2023July 29, 2023

A young planet whirling around a petulant red dwarf star is changing in unpredictable ways orbit-by-orbit. It is so close to its parent star that it experiences a consistent, torrential […]

Target pixel files (TPFs) of TOI-1680 in TESS Sector 14 and 15, created with tpfplotter (Aller et al. 2020). The orange shaded region represents the aperture used to extract the SPOC photometry. The red circles are the Gaia DR2 sources. Sizes represent magnitude contrasts with respect to TOI-1680. Figure continued in Appendix A. -- astro-ph.EP

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

TESS Discovers A Super-Earth Orbiting The M Dwarf Star TOI-1680

by Keith CowingJuly 13, 2023July 13, 2023

We report the discovery by the TESS mission of a super-Earth on a 4.8-d orbit around an inactive M4.5 dwarf (TOI-1680) and its validation with ground-based facilities.

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 […]

The result of the transit injection-and-recovery test for the planet candidate. Blue to light green represents an increasing detection possibility of its transit signal (assuming it transits). The solid blue histogram in the top panel illustrates the average number of transits within the TESS time baseline. The foreground yellow solid lines mark the six possible orbital solutions of the planet candidate found in Juliet. -- astro-ph.EP

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

A Transiting Super-Earth in the Radius Valley and An Outer Planet Candidate Around HD 307842

by Keith CowingJune 26, 2023June 26, 2023

We report the confirmation of a TESS-discovered transiting super-Earth planet orbiting a mid-G star, HD 307842 (TOI-784). The planet has a period of 2.8 days, and the radial velocity (RV) […]

Stellar irradiation comparison for the four inner planets of the Solar System (upper panel) and the LP 890-9 planetary system (lower panel), with scaled planetary radii. The Venus Zone (yellow shade) (Kane et al. 2014) and HZ (blue shade) transition gradually due to the complex climate feedback that may push planets into Earth-like or Venus-like states within the orbital range. HZ limit (solid blue) shown: inner empirical ‘Recent Venus’; and outer ‘Maximum Greenhouse’ limit. A ‘Runaway Greenhouse’ flux limit is also indicated following 1D (black dashed) (Kopparapu et al. 2014) and 3D (black dotted) climate modelling (Kopparapu et al. 2017).

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Extinction events, Habitable Zones, Press Release, Venus

Venus Atmosphere In 3D Prepares Future Observations Of Rocky Exoplanets

by Keith CowingJune 15, 2023June 15, 2023

The Venus atmosphere may be used as a natural laboratory to understand the evolution of Earth-like planets, according to a study led by the Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do […]

Black crosses: TESS lightcurve around the transits of planet b, after phasing by the planet’s period against the adopted ephemeris and the correction against gradients in the off-eclipse sections (indicated by the orange vertical dashed lines) as described in Sect. 2. Green crosses: The same curve, after a boxcar smoothing over 100 phased data points and posterior binning over 50 points. We note that the average time-increment between the binned points is 126 seconds, which is very similar to the 120 s temporal resolution of TESS lightcurves. The red curve is the transit model generated with UTM/UFIT, described in Appendix C. -- astro-ph.EP

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

TOI-1416: A Ssystem With A Super-Earth Planet With A 1.07d Period

by Keith CowingMay 31, 2023May 31, 2023

TOI 1416 (BD+42 2504, HIP 70705) is a V=10 late G or early K-type dwarf star with transits detected by TESS. Radial velocities verify the presence of the transiting planet […]

Artist's view of the TOI-2096 system. Credits: Lionel J.Garc

Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release

A Key Planetary System Helps To Understand Formation Mechanisms Of Super-Earths

by Keith CowingMay 26, 2023May 26, 2023

A study led by researchers of the University of Liège and the CSIC – using observations from NASA’s TESS telescope – presents the detection of a system of two planets […]