TRAPPIST-1 Archives

Schematic diagram of steps in the theoretical model. Further description of key parameters, sampled ranges, and calculation procedures is found in Methods. -- astro-ph.EP)

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

Statistical Geochemical Constraints On present-day Water Outgassing As A Source Of Secondary Atmospheres On The TRAPPIST-1 Exoplanets

by Keith CowingMay 8, 2025September 18, 2025

The TRAPPIST-1 planetary system is observationally favorable for studying if planets orbiting M stars can retain atmospheres and host habitable conditions. Recent JWST secondary eclipse observations of TRAPPIST-1 c rule […]

Temporal medians of ’Extreme’, ’Moderate’, and ’Quiescent’ simulations for Temperature (T in K). Medians are taken from 8 years and for (a) 1.223 × 10−5 mbar and (b) 0.008 mbar atmospheric levels. Extreme and Moderate medians are only taken for days when flares occur. Stippling uses a two-tailed Wilcoxon rank-sum test to represent ’Extreme’ and ’Moderate’ areas that are not statistically different from the ’Quiescent’ one at p

Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Space Weather & Heliophysics, Status Report, Stellar Cartography, TRAPPIST-1, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Effects of Transient Stellar Emissions On Planetary Climates Of Tidally-locked Exo-earths

by Keith CowingMay 7, 2025May 7, 2025

Space weather events in planetary environments sourced from transient host star emissions, including stellar flares, coronal mass ejections, and stellar proton events, can substantially influence an exoplanet’s climate and atmospheric […]

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.

Left, difference in wmf between two different hydrosphere assumptions and the default model. Red dotted is models with the surface temperature raised to create a layer of liquid water instead of ice Ih. Blue dashed is models with the AQUA compilation of EoSs from Haldemann et al. (2020). The hatched region shows the 1-σ region of wmf from observational uncertainties with our default model. Right, difference in wmf between planet models with different bulk moduli for the mantle or core and our default planet model. In red, the bulk modulus of the core is increased (dotted) and decreased (dashed) by 10%. In blue, the bulk modulus of the bridgmanite and post perovskite is increased/decreased by 10%. -- astro-ph.EP

Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Status Report, TRAPPIST-1

Uncertainties In The Inference of Internal Structure: The Case of TRAPPIST-1 f

by Keith CowingApril 24, 2025April 24, 2025

We use the TRAPPIST-1 system as a model observation of Earth-like planets. The densities of these planets being 1-10% less than the Earth suggest that the outer planets may host […]

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 […]

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Missions & Hardware, Press Release, Radiation, Space Weather & Heliophysics, TRAPPIST-1

Parker Solar Probe Has Touched The Outer Reaches Of A Star

by Keith CowingDecember 29, 2024December 29, 2024

Editor’s note: The Parker Solar Probe recently conducted a close fly-by of a star – our sun. This is the closest that any human object has ever gotten to any […]

Normalized white light curves of TRAPPIST-1 c and TRAPPIST-1 b observed with JWST/NIRSpec PRISM during their quasi-simultaneous transits on July 9, 2024. Top panel: A schematic of the geometry of the quasi-simultaneous transits is displayed at the top. The blue circles represent the data points after removing the systematics model (a combination of a linear slope and a Gaussian Process, see Section 3.2). The solid black line indicates the fitted transit model. The data have been binned in time from the original 10,208 integrations to the 341 points shown here to accommodate the computation of the Gaussian Process systematics model. Horizontal lines labeled S1 through S5 mark the time bins used in the out-of-transit stellar analysis (see Section 3.1). The inset displays a histogram of the residuals after subtracting the combined transit and systematics model, compared to a Gaussian distribution with a standard deviation equal to the mean measurement error plus a fitted white noise term. Bottom panel: Residuals after subtracting both the transit and systematic models. -- astro-ph.EP

Astrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Interstellar, Status Report

Stellar Contamination Correction Using Back-to-Back Transits of TRAPPIST-1 b and c

by Keith CowingDecember 24, 2024December 24, 2024

Stellar surface heterogeneities, such as spots and faculae, often contaminate exoplanet transit spectra, hindering precise atmospheric characterization.

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.

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

The Light Of TRAPPIST-1 b Reveals New Insights On The Planet’s Nature

by Keith CowingDecember 16, 2024December 16, 2024

New TRAPPIST-1 observations with JWST underscore the complexities of confirming a planet’s atmosphere using only broadband thermal emission data. This insight takes on added significance with the newly approved “Rocky […]

An artist’s illustration of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope revealing, in the infrared, a population of small main-belt asteroids. Credits: Image: Ella Maru and Julien de Wit

Astrogeology, Astronomy & Telescopes, Comets and Asteroids, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Extinction events, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Impact events, Meteorites & Asteroids, Press Release, TRAPPIST-1

The Smallest Asteroids Ever Detected In The Main Belt

by Keith CowingDecember 11, 2024December 11, 2024

The asteroid that extinguished the dinosaurs is estimated to have been about 10 kilometers across. That’s about as wide as Brooklyn. Such a massive impactor is predicted to hit Earth […]

TRAPPIST-1

Statistical Geochemical Constraints On present-day Water Outgassing As A Source Of Secondary Atmospheres On The TRAPPIST-1 Exoplanets

Effects of Transient Stellar Emissions On Planetary Climates Of Tidally-locked Exo-earths

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

Uncertainties In The Inference of Internal Structure: The Case of TRAPPIST-1 f

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

Parker Solar Probe Has Touched The Outer Reaches Of A Star

Stellar Contamination Correction Using Back-to-Back Transits of TRAPPIST-1 b and c

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

The Light Of TRAPPIST-1 b Reveals New Insights On The Planet’s Nature

The Smallest Asteroids Ever Detected In The Main Belt

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