TRAPPIST 1-e Archives

Sketch of the magnetospheric interaction in the TRAPPIST-1–TRAPPIST-1e system. The stellar wind velocity and IMF streamlines are drawn in green and white, respectively. The M dwarf star is shown as a yellow sphere, and the planet TRAPPIST-1e as a blue shaded circle. The planetary magnetic field lines (white) exhibit compression on the dayside and extension into a magnetotail. A bow shock structure forms upstream of the planet under a super-Alfvénic regime. The color scale represents normalized plasma density. -- astro-ph.EP

Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Space Weather & Heliophysics, Status Report, TRAPPIST-1

MHD Simulations Preliminarily Predict The Habitability and Radio Emission of TRAPPIST-1e

by Keith CowingApril 24, 2025April 24, 2025

As the closest Earth-like exoplanet within the habitable zone of the M-dwarf star TRAPPIST-1, TRAPPIST-1e exhibits a magnetic field topology that is dependent on space weather conditions.

Absorption contributions from different molecules in a potentially inhabited TRAPPIST-1 e spectrum with surface concentrations similar to a Neoproterozoic Earth (Kaltenegger et al. 2020) and a mixing ratio of H2O fixed at 10−2 . Each color represents a molecule (see legend). Error bars illustrate noise based on the SNR, using the CO2 strongest peak as the signal value. -- astro-ph.EP

AI - Data - Apps - Cybernetics, Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report, TRAPPIST-1

Machine-assisted Classification Of Potential Biosignatures In Earth-like Exoplanets Using Low Signal-to-noise Ratio Transmission Spectra

by Keith CowingApril 5, 2025April 5, 2025

The search for atmospheric biosignatures in Earth-like exoplanets is one of the most pressing challenges in observational astrobiology. Detecting biogenic gases in terrestrial planets requires high resolution and long integration […]

Surface temperature (straddling 0◦C), total cloud cover (%), net outgoing thermal radiation (W m−2 ), and cloud water content (kg m−2 ) for four of the simulations listed in Table 1. Simulations are displayed from dry (Sim 01: Arid-Venus), semidry 10 m GEL (Sim 02: 10 m-Venus), Earth-like 310 m GEL (Sim 03: 310 m-Venus) and an aquaplanet (Sim 06). Sims 01–03 are 1 bar N2 dominated with 400ppmv CO2. Sim 06 is N2-dominated, but the only greenhouse gas is H2O following Wolf (2017). Cloud coverage is fairly low in Sims 01–02 as expected given limited surface reservoirs and cloud water content (rightmost column), and is much higher for Sims 03 and 06. -- astro-ph.EP

Astrogeology, Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Press Release, TRAPPIST-1, Venus

TRAPPIST-1 d: Exo-Venus, Exo-Earth or Exo-Dead?

by Keith CowingFebruary 10, 2025February 10, 2025

TRAPPIST-1 d is generally assumed to be at the boundary between a Venus-like world and an Earth-like world, although recently published works on TRAPPIST-1 b and c raise concerns that […]

This schematic depicts the set-up of the volatile exchange during initialization (t=0) and run time. For initialization, a surface temperature of 4000 K and a completely molten magma ocean is assumed, where the dissolved volatiles are in balance with the outgassed volatile content, set by the volatile melt fraction Fi . As the magma ocean solidifies, part of the volatile budget is deposited in the solid mantle. Further, atmospheric escape can remove H2O. These two sink terms thus reduce the amount of a volatile available in the fully coupled magma ocean-atmosphere system Mimoa . The full overview of all included processes, including radiogenic heating, is shown in Barth et al. (2021, Fig. 1) -- astro-ph.EP

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

How Mixed Outgassing Changes The Volatile Distribution In Magma Oceans Around M Dwarf Stars

by Keith CowingDecember 17, 2024December 17, 2024

We investigate the impact of CO2 on TRAPPIST-1 e, f and g during the magma ocean stage. These potentially habitable rocky planets are currently the most accessible for astronomical observations.

Quiescent stellar spectrum (blue), superflare peak spectrum (green; blackbody with 9000 K), and total spectrum (black) scaled to the orbit of TRAPPIST-1 𝑒. The Kepler transmission curve is shown in red, and the relevant UV ranges as gray shaded areas. -- MNRAS

Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Radiation, Space Weather & Heliophysics, Status Report, TRAPPIST-1

An Experimental Study Of The Biological Impact Of A Superflare On The TRAPPIST-1 Planets

by Keith CowingNovember 8, 2024November 8, 2024

In the present study, we conducted experiments to assess the biological effects of high fluences of UV radiation (UVR) on the TRAPPIST-1 planetary system (planets e, f, g within the […]

Joining of the inner and outer subsystems. The evolution of the semi-major axes is shown with continuous coloured lines for all planets, which are also labelled by circles whose size reflect the observed size of the planets. In our favoured scenario, planet e followed the inner edge while planets b, c and d were in the inner cavity. Planets f, g and h join the system later, undergoing inward disc-driven migration (the disc is depicted by the top shaded area, with the lighter shading on the right indicating that the disc will eventually disperse). Since planet g is more massive than f and h, it is likely to capture f in resonance (the 4:3 being the favoured commensurability [5]) and the two planets migrate in together. When f reaches the 3:2 resonance with e, the combined push from g-f is sufficient to dislodge planet e from the inner edge (shown as a blue line enclosing the top shaded area). Driven by a full OLT, the orbit of planet e decays faster than f and g, approaching the 3:2 resonance with d. Planet h is the last one to migrate in and capture g in the 3:2 resonance to complete the chain. -- astro-ph.EP

Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Status Report, TRAPPIST-1

Forming The Trappist-1 System In Two Steps During The Recession Of The Disc Inner Edge

by Keith CowingAugust 27, 2024August 27, 2024

Trappist-1 hosts 7 planets where period ratios of neighbouring pairs are close to the 8:5, 5:3, 3:2, 3:2, 4:3, and 3:2 ratios in increasing distance from the star. The Laplace […]

The surface temperature is displayed for the four PCb simulations used in this work: PCb PI (top left), PCb 10% PAL (top right), PCb 1% PAL (bottom left), PCb 0.1% PAL (bottom right). White arrows indicate the magnitude and direction of the surface winds. The magenta contours show surface temperatures of 273 K. For scale, a 10 m s-1 arrow is shown in the middle of the figure. -- astro-ph.EP

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Habitable Zones, Proxima Centauri, Space Weather & Heliophysics, Status Report, TRAPPIST-1

Lethal Surface Ozone Concentrations Are Possible On Habitable Zone Exoplanets

by Keith CowingMay 31, 2024

Ozone (O3) is important for the survival of life on Earth because it shields the surface from ionising ultraviolet (UV) radiation. However, the existence of O3 in Earth’s atmosphere is […]

Maps of surface temperature (colors) and 430 hPa winds (arrows) for each GCM simulation with all CO2 cases (each column) having independent color bars. The substellar point is located at (0◦ , 0◦ ). The substellar point is hottest at lower obliquities, and the poles are hotter than the equator at higher obliquities. Day-night surface temperature contrasts and resulting planetary-scale atmospheric wave patterns, like Rossby gyres, are more prominent for the cases with less CO2. For the higher obliquity cases the direction of the equatorial wind speed reverses from eastward to westward. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report, TRAPPIST-1

The Coupled Impacts of Atmospheric Composition and Obliquity on the Climate Dynamics of TRAPPIST-1e

by Keith CowingMay 13, 2024May 13, 2024

Planets in multi-planet systems are expected to migrate inward as near-resonant chains, thus allowing them to undergo gravitational planet-planet interactions and possibly maintain a non-zero obliquity.

Oxygen retention efficiency as a function of initial water content in TO. Top Row: Interior planets, T1-b, c, and d. Bottom Row: Outer planets, T1-e, f, g, and h. Coloring shows the percentage of simulations at a particular initial water content that fell in a given oxygen retention efficiency bin (e.g., each column corresponds to one initial water content and sums to 100%). Contours are given for the 50th percentile values (solid white lines) and the 1σ confidence region (dashed white lines). -- astro-ph.EP

Astrogeology, Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Status Report, TRAPPIST-1

The Implications of Thermal Hydrodynamic Atmospheric Escape on the TRAPPIST-1 Planets

by Keith CowingMay 7, 2024May 7, 2024

JWST observations of the 7-planet TRAPPIST-1 system will provide an excellent opportunity to test outcomes of stellar-driven evolution of terrestrial planetary atmospheres, including atmospheric escape, ocean loss and abiotic oxygen […]

A comparison of simulated transmission spectra for TRAPPIST-1 e modeled with a self-consistent, Earth-like atmosphere. When self-consistent ice and water clouds are included, no significant spectroscopic changes occur to the spectrum. We see small impacts due to clouds in the relatively transparent portion of the atmosphere between 8 – 13 µm, where the clouds reduce the minimum altitude probed from 10 to 12 km. -- astro-ph.EP

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

Retrieved Atmospheres and Inferred Surface Properties for Exoplanets Using Transmission and Reflected Light Spectroscopy

by Keith CowingApril 3, 2024April 3, 2024

Future astrophysics missions will seek extraterrestrial life via transmission and direct imaging observations.

TRAPPIST 1-e

MHD Simulations Preliminarily Predict The Habitability and Radio Emission of TRAPPIST-1e

Machine-assisted Classification Of Potential Biosignatures In Earth-like Exoplanets Using Low Signal-to-noise Ratio Transmission Spectra

TRAPPIST-1 d: Exo-Venus, Exo-Earth or Exo-Dead?

How Mixed Outgassing Changes The Volatile Distribution In Magma Oceans Around M Dwarf Stars

An Experimental Study Of The Biological Impact Of A Superflare On The TRAPPIST-1 Planets

Forming The Trappist-1 System In Two Steps During The Recession Of The Disc Inner Edge

Lethal Surface Ozone Concentrations Are Possible On Habitable Zone Exoplanets

The Coupled Impacts of Atmospheric Composition and Obliquity on the Climate Dynamics of TRAPPIST-1e

The Implications of Thermal Hydrodynamic Atmospheric Escape on the TRAPPIST-1 Planets

Retrieved Atmospheres and Inferred Surface Properties for Exoplanets Using Transmission and Reflected Light Spectroscopy

Tricorder Tech: New Handheld Device Maps Chemical Composition Using Infrared Light

No Statistically Significant Evidence For A Correlation Between Stellar And planetary Composition

Water Planet Recon: How Accurately Can We Measure Earth Ocean’s Deepest Point?

Webb Reveals A Stunning Panorama Of Star Formation

Deep Learning of SHERLOC Raman Spectra For Facilitating Mars Astromaterial Identification