TRAPPIST-1 Archives

The TP profiles for the 6 exoEarth atmospheres (left panel) and the chemical abundance profiles for the 400 ppm exoEarth (right panel).

Astrogeology, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report, Venus

Investigating The Ability Of JWST To Identify Discerning Features In exoEarth And exoVenus Transmission Spectra

by Keith CowingOctober 4, 2023October 4, 2023

The success of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission has led to the discovery of an abundance of Venus Zone (VZ) terrestrial planets that orbit relatively bright host stars.

Image description: Infographic titled, “Rocky Exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 b Dayside Temperature Comparison, MIRI F1500W” showing five planets plotted along a horizontal temperature scale: Earth, TRAPPIST-1 b, Mercury, and two different models of TRAPPIST-1 b. The temperature scale is labeled in kelvins and degrees Fahrenheit, and ranges from 0 kelvins (negative 459 degrees Fahrenheit) at the left to 800 kelvins (980 degrees Fahrenheit at the right). The planets are plotted along the temperature scale at the following temperatures: Earth Measured at 290 kelvins (60 degrees Fahrenheit); TRAPPIST-1 b Measured at about 500 kelvins and 445 degrees Fahrenheit; “Mercury Measured” at 700 kelvins (800 degrees Fahrenheit). TRAPPIST-1 b Model with atmosphere is plotted at 400 kelvins (260 degrees Fahrenheit); TRAPPIST-1 b Model with no atmosphere is plotted at about 510 kelvins and 455 degrees Fahrenheit. TRAPPIST-1 b Measured is plotted at almost the same temperature as TRAPPIST-1 b Model with no atmosphere.

Astrogeology, Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release, TRAPPIST-1

Webb Measures The Temperature Of Rocky Exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 b

by Keith CowingOctober 2, 2023

Webb measured the dayside temperature of rocky exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 b and found it to be about 450 degrees F (227 degrees C), suggesting it has no significant atmosphere.

Best-fit system in each modeling scenario compared to the true TRAPPIST-1 system using only Filippazzo et al. (2015) priors. The symbol size corresponds to the planet size, and the color indicates albedo. Horizontal bars indicate the uncertainty on a planet’s semi-major axis. Each modeling scenario is labeled with the number of planets included, the computed evidence, and its significance against the best-fit model. We use transparency to demonstrate which models are ruled out by > 3σ confidence. The vertical dashed lines indicate the limits of our semi-major axis bounds. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Status Report, TRAPPIST-1

On the Effectiveness of the Planetary Infrared Excess (PIE) Technique to Retrieve the Parameters of Multiplanet Systems around M dwarfs: A Case Study on the TRAPPIST-1 System

by Keith CowingOctober 1, 2023October 1, 2023

The planetary infrared excess (PIE) technique has the potential to efficiently detect and characterize the thermal spectra of both transiting and non-transiting exoplanets. However, the technique has not been evaluated […]

The transmission spectrum atmospheric effective altitude is plotted against wavelength between 0.2 µm and 11 µm for the P19 PI (orange), P19 10% PAL (brown), P19 1% PAL (yellow), and P19 0.1% PAL (red) simulations, and the W21 PI (light blue), W21 10% PAL (blue), W21 1% PAL (lilac), and W21 0.1% PAL (grey) simulations. The non-tidally locked cases are excluded for clarity, but show little differences compared to the equivalent tidally locked case. The transit depth, in terms of contrast with respect to the star, is indicated on the right vertical axis in parts per million (ppm). The spectra are binned to a spectral resolving power of R = 250. Spectral features are indicated in grey. The wavelength range of the proposed Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO; blue shaded region), and that of the JWST NIRSpec instrument (yellow shaded region), are shown. They overlap in the green shaded region. The wavelength range of the JWST MIRI instrument is indicated in the magenta shaded region. The wavelength spacing between 0.2 – 1 µm is changed between 1 – 11 µm in order to clearly show the UV and visible regions. The black bar represents the uncertainty that would be present on a measurement that has reached the noise floor of the instrument, where the noise floor is indicated as 5 ppm. Note this error bar is an estimate of the performance of the telescope and does not indicate a measurement. -- astro-ph.EP

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report, TRAPPIST-1

Degenerate Interpretations Of O3 Spectral Features In Exoplanet Atmosphere Observations Due To Stellar UV Uncertainties: A 3D Case Study With TRAPPIST-1e

by Keith CowingOctober 1, 2023October 1, 2023

TRAPPIST-1e is a potentially habitable terrestrial exoplanet orbiting an ultra-cool M Dwarf star and is a key target for observations with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). One-dimensional photochemical modelling […]

Astrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release, TRAPPIST-1

JWST Insights Into The Atmosphere Of Exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 b And The Star TRAPPIST-1

by Keith CowingSeptember 25, 2023September 25, 2023

Astronomers led by a team at Université de Montréal has made important progress in understanding the intriguing TRAPPIST-1 exoplanetary system, which was first discovered in 2016 amid speculation it could […]

Earth’s observed cloud-free transit transmission spectrum from Macdonald & Cowan (2019) binned to a resolution of ∆λ = 0.02 µm and fit using smarter. The data are shown in black, the best-fitting model (Model 1) spectrum is shown in white and blue, and various colors are used to indicate each molecule’s contribution to the model spectrum. The most prominent features are due to CO2 and O3, but a rich diversity of habitability indicators, biosignatures, and technosignatures are present. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, SETI & Technosignatures, Status Report

Earth As A Transiting Exoplanet: A Validation Of Transmission Spectroscopy And Atmospheric Retrieval Methodologies For Terrestrial Exoplanets

by Keith CowingAugust 29, 2023August 29, 2023

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will enable the search for and characterization of terrestrial exoplanet atmospheres in the habitable zone via transmission spectroscopy.

Typical time evolution for the four planets of the resonant chain of Kepler-80 (d, e, b, and c) with Q ′ = 0.05 and physical parameters from Table 1. In the top left panel the eccentricities, in the top right panel the mean-motion ratios of adjacent planets, in the bottom left panel the two-body resonant angles and in the bottom right panel the three-body resonant angles. -- astro-ph.EP

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

Tidal Interactions Shape Period Ratios In Planetary Systems With Three-body Resonant Chains

by Keith CowingAugust 16, 2023

These last years several Systems with Tightly packed Inner Planets in the super-Earth mass regime have been discovered harboring chains of resonances. It is generally believed that planet pairs get […]

Brightness temperature spectra for the dayside hemisphere of selected modeled environments for TRAPPIST-1 c with JWST with points corresponding to the model spectra convolved to the F1500W filter band, over the full-wide half-max of the band’s wavelength extent (horizontal error bars). We also show the data point measured by Zieba et al. (2023), along with lines corresponding to blackbody temperatures for day-side with zero heat redistribution (dark grey dashed) and for a blackbody with perfect heat redistribution (light gray dashed). The best fit atmospheres are the 0.1 bar, O2-dominated atmospheres, at 0.5–1.0σ from the measured eclipse depth. -- astro-ph.EP

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

Potential Atmospheric Compositions of TRAPPIST-1 c constrained by JWST/MIRI Observations At 15 μm

by Keith CowingAugust 14, 2023August 14, 2023

The first JWST observations of TRAPPIST-1 c showed a secondary eclipse depth of 421+/-94 ppm at 15 um, which is consistent with a bare rock surface or a thin, O2-dominated, […]

Spectral S/N comparison between ESO's ELT spectroscopic ETC and Imber using the same methodology. For comparison, a 1500 K object with an apparent J magnitude of 15 was used with a 300 s exposure. The spectral S/N were output in the L band to demonstrate Imber's ability to scale apparent magnitudes based on input spectra and to demonstrate performance in a similar band as ELT/METIS. Vertical axis is logarithmic. -- Astrophysical Journal

Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Press Release, Space Weather & Heliophysics, TRAPPIST-1

Using Cosmic Weather To Study Which Worlds Could Support Life

by Keith CowingJuly 29, 2023July 29, 2023

As the next generation of giant, high-powered observatories begin to come online, a new study suggests that their instruments may offer scientists an unparalleled opportunity to discern what weather may […]

Top: Top-of-atmosphere number flux from the Sun and TRAPPIST-1 (left y-axis). Also co-plotted are the photolysis cross-sections of CO2 (right abscissa). Bottom: CO2 cross-sections weighted by the stellar emission of TRAPPIST-1 and the Sun. The bluer spectrum of TRAPPIST-1 increases the weight of shortwave σCO2 , which is larger, driving an increase in σUV,g. -- astro-ph.EP

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Status Report

A Re-Appraisal of CO/O2 Runaway On Habitable Planets Orbiting Low-Mass Stars

by Keith CowingJuly 19, 2023July 19, 2023

Efforts to spectrally characterize the atmospheric compositions of temperate terrestrial exoplanets orbiting M-dwarf stars with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) are now underway. Key molecular targets of such searches […]

TRAPPIST-1

Investigating The Ability Of JWST To Identify Discerning Features In exoEarth And exoVenus Transmission Spectra

Webb Measures The Temperature Of Rocky Exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 b

On the Effectiveness of the Planetary Infrared Excess (PIE) Technique to Retrieve the Parameters of Multiplanet Systems around M dwarfs: A Case Study on the TRAPPIST-1 System

Degenerate Interpretations Of O3 Spectral Features In Exoplanet Atmosphere Observations Due To Stellar UV Uncertainties: A 3D Case Study With TRAPPIST-1e

JWST Insights Into The Atmosphere Of Exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 b And The Star TRAPPIST-1

Earth As A Transiting Exoplanet: A Validation Of Transmission Spectroscopy And Atmospheric Retrieval Methodologies For Terrestrial Exoplanets

Tidal Interactions Shape Period Ratios In Planetary Systems With Three-body Resonant Chains

Potential Atmospheric Compositions of TRAPPIST-1 c constrained by JWST/MIRI Observations At 15 μm

Using Cosmic Weather To Study Which Worlds Could Support Life

A Re-Appraisal of CO/O2 Runaway On Habitable Planets Orbiting Low-Mass Stars

A Martian Horizon Last Monday Afternoon

Habitable-zone Earths At The Detection Frontier: Measured Completeness And False-alarm Rate Of A Transit Pipeline For The PLATO M-dwarf Sample

A Homogeneous Survey Of JWST MIRI Transmission Spectra Of 10 Exoplanets

Retrieving Ocean Glint Reflectance Signatures From Directly Imaged Earth-like Exoplanets

Analytical Platform (Microsampling, Catapulting, Trapping, and LIBS) for the Characterization of Discrete Domains in Samples of Astrochemical Interest