water snowline Archives - Page 2 of 2 - Astrobiology

Water-equivalent content by weight in the Solar System and model predictions. Left upper panel: Midplane temperature of the disk using T1au = 145, 180, 200 and 300 K (from light blue to dark blue respectively) in Eq. 2. Left lower panel: The solid curves show the snowlines calculated using the Tinacci et al. (2023) BE distribution for the different temperature profiles (colours code as above). The data points show the median values of the water-equivalent content by weight for different objects of the Solar System (Sec. 3), where vertical bars represent the minimum and maximum range. Please note that the values reported in Tab. 1 are considered upper limits (see text). The uncertainty of the formation region of the various objects are shown as ellipses, distinguishing NC, CC, and comet populations. Right: Computed snowlines using T1au = 200 K in Eq. 2 and different models (see text): BE distribution (solid line), single BE (dashed) and condensation at 180 K (dotted). The right and left panels share the same vertical axis. -- astro-ph.EP

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Habitable Zones, Interstellar, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Was Earth’s Water Acquired Locally During The Earliest Phases Of The Solar System Formation?

by Keith CowingJuly 8, 2025July 8, 2025

The origin of the terrestrial water remains debated, as standard Solar System formation models suggest that Earth formed from dry grains, inside the snowline of the Proto-Solar Nebula (PSN).

Distribution of known exoplanet masses plotted vs. semi-major axis (left) and semimajor axis normalized to the location of the snow-line (right) at asnow = 2.7AU M/MSun (green dashed line). Planets found by the Doppler/RV method (black lines with upward error bars indicating the sin i uncertainty, where i refers to line-of-sight inclination), transits (blue squares), microlensing (red error bar crosses), direct detection, (magenta triangles) timing (green triangles) and transit timing variations (gold diamonds). Small cyan spots indicate Kepler planets and planet candidates without mass measurements. Black letters show the locations of our Solar System's planets. Microlensing discoveries. -- astro-ph.EP

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

Exoplanet Detection With Microlensing

by Keith CowingMay 20, 2025May 20, 2025

Microlensing is the method of exoplanet detection that discovers solar system analog exoplanets.

Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gas Giants, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

The GAPS Programme at TNG LXVII. Detection Of Water And Preliminary Characterisation Of The Atmospheres Of The Two Hot Jupiters KELT-8 b And KELT-23 Ab

by Keith CowingFebruary 24, 2025February 24, 2025

Expanding the number of hot giant planets with atmospheric characterisation can improve our understanding of their atmospheres as well as their formation and evolution mechanisms.

Snapshots show planetary seeds’ growth and migration from two rings of material. This simulation comes from our M6T2 scenario. The top-left panel shows the starting time of the simulation. The time of each snapshot is shown on the bottom-left of each panel. The color of each dot corresponds to the water mass fraction of each planetary seed. We plot planetesimal and pebble isolation masses with dotted and dashed lines, respectively. The planetesimal isolation mass is obtained by extrapolating the initial surface density of the inner planetesimal disk. The vertical blue dashed line shows the location of the water condensation line. The blue solid line is the boundary of the inward and outward migration where the migration torque is zero. -- astro-ph.EP

Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Formation of Super-Earths and Mini-Neptunes From Rings of Planetesimals

by Keith CowingJanuary 8, 2025

The solar system planetary architecture has been proposed to be consistent with the terrestrial and giant planets forming from material rings at ~1 au and ~5 au, respectively.

WASP-77 A b is a gas giant exoplanet that orbits a G-type star. Its mass is 1.667 Jupiters, it takes 1.4 days to complete one orbit of its star, and is 0.02335 AU from its star. -- NASA

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gas Giants, Status Report

The Wanderer: Charting WASP-77A b’s Formation and Migration Using a System-Wide Inventory of Carbon and Oxygen Abundances

by Keith CowingSeptember 6, 2024September 6, 2024

The elemental and isotopic abundances of volatiles like carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen may trace a planet’s formation location relative to H2O, CO2, CO, NH3, and N2 “snowlines”, or the distance […]

Artist impression of solar system formation. Presolar grains are tiny, solid grains of primitive solar system material that originated before the formation of the Sun. They have been found in many places, including interplanetary dust, meteorites, and even samples from the comet Wild-2 that were returned to Earth by NASA's Stardust mission. Image credit: Gemini Observatory/AURA/Lynette Cook via NASA Astrobiology

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Status Report

Accretion of the Earliest Inner Solar System Planetesimals Beyond the Water-snowline

by Keith CowingSeptember 4, 2024September 4, 2024

How and where the first generation of inner solar system planetesimals formed remains poorly understood. Potential formation regions are the silicate condensation line and water-snowline of the solar protoplanetary disk.

An artist’s concept of a planet-forming disk around a young star. Astronomers using the MIRI spectrograph. © ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO) / MPIA

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release

JWST Looks Into The Chemical Components Of Exoplanet Formation

by Keith CowingApril 13, 2023

Researchers using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have taken a first look at their data that probe the chemistry of the regions of disks around young stars where rocky […]

Origin

Astrochemistry, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Meteorites & Asteroids, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Origin Of Water In The Terrestrial Planets: Insights From Meteorite Data And Planet Formation Models

by Keith CowingFebruary 7, 2023February 7, 2023

Water condensed as ice beyond the water snowline, the location in the Sun’s natal gaseous disk where temperatures were below 170 K. As the disk evolved and cooled, the snowline […]