The Trappist-1 system contains seven roughly Earth-sized planets locked in a multi-resonant orbital configuration, which has enabled precise measurements of the planets’ masses and constrained their compositions. Here we use […]
TRAPPIST-1
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Orbital Harmony Limits Late Arrival Of Water On TRAPPIST-1 Planets
Seven Earth-sized planets orbit the star TRAPPIST-1 in near-perfect harmony, and U.S. and European researchers have used that harmony to determine how much physical abuse the planets could have withstood […]
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Detecting The Proposed CH4-CO2 Biosignature Pair With The James Webb Space Telescope: TRAPPIST-1e And The Effect Of Cloud/haze
It is widely anticipated that the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will be transformative for exoplanet studies. It has even been suggested that JWST could provide the first opportunity to […]
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The Dynamics Of The TRAPPIST-1 System In The Context Of Its Formation
TRAPPIST-1 is an 0.09 M⊙ star, which harbours a system of seven Earth-sized planets. Two main features stand out: (i) all planets have similar radii, masses, and compositions; and (ii) […]
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The TRAPPIST-1 Habitable Atmosphere Intercomparison (THAI). Part I: Dry Cases — The Fellowship Of The GCMs
With the commissioning of powerful, new-generation telescopes such as the JWST and the ELTs, the first characterization of a high molecular weight atmosphere around a temperate rocky exoplanet is imminent. […]
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The TRAPPIST-1 Habitable Atmosphere Intercomparison (THAI). Part II: Moist Cases — The Two Waterworlds
To identify promising exoplanets for atmospheric characterization and to make the best use of observational data, a thorough understanding of their atmospheres is needed. 3D general circulation models (GCMs) are […]
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The TRAPPIST-1 Habitable Atmosphere Intercomparison (THAI). Part III: Simulated Observables — The Return Of The Spectrum
The TRAPPIST-1 Habitable Atmosphere Intercomparison (THAI) is a community project that aims to quantify how dfferences in general circulation models (GCMs) could impact the climate prediction for TRAPPIST-1e and, subsequently […]
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Non-detection Of Helium In The Upper Atmospheres Of TRAPPIST-1b, e and f
We obtained high-resolution spectra of the ultra-cool M-dwarf TRAPPIST-1 during the transit of its planet `b’ using two high dispersion near-infrared spectrographs, IRD instrument on the Subaru 8.2m telescope and […]
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Water Ice Cloud Variability & Multi-Epoch Transmission Spectra of TRAPPIST-1e
The precise characterization of terrestrial atmospheres with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is one of the utmost goals of exoplanet astronomy in the next decade. With JWST’s impending launch, […]
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The Seven Rocky Planets Of TRAPPIST-1 Seem To Have Very Similar Compositions
A new international study led by astrophysicist Eric Agol from the University of Washington has measured the densities of the seven planets of the exoplanetary system TRAPPIST-1 with extreme precision, […]