Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T03:56:22.789Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Super-Earths and life - a fascinating puzzle: Example GJ 581d

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 November 2011

Lisa Kaltenegger ,
Antígona Segura  and
Subhanjoy Mohanty
Lisa Kaltenegger
Affiliation:
MPIA, Koenigstuhl 17, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany also Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden st., 02138 MA Cambridge, USA email: kaltenegger@mpia.de
Antígona Segura
Affiliation:
Instituto de Ciencias Nucleares, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico
Subhanjoy Mohanty
Affiliation:
Imperial College London, 1010 Blackett Lab., Prince Consort Road, London SW7 2AZ, UK
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Spurred by the recent large number of radial velocity detections and the discovery of several transiting system and among those two planets, that are consistent with rocky composition, the study of planets orbiting nearby stars has now entered an era of characterizing massive terrestrial planets (aka super-Earths). One prominent question is, if such planets could be habitats. Here we focuss on one particular planet Gl581d. For Earth-like assumptions, we investigate the minimal atmospheric conditions for Gl581d to be potentially habitable at its current position, and if habitability could be remotely detected in its spectra. The model we present here only represents one possible nature an Earth-like composition - of a planet like Gl581d in a wide parameter space. Future observations of atmospheric features of such super-Earths can be used to examine if our concept of habitability and its dependence on the carbonate-silicate cycle is correct, and also assess whether Gl581d is indeed the first detected habitable super-Earth. We will need spectroscopic measurements to probe the atmosphere of such planets to break the degeneracy of mass and radius measurements and characterize a planetary environment.

Keywords

astrobiologystars: individual (Gl581)planetary systemsEarthtechniques: spectroscopic
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 6 , Symposium S276: The Astrophysics of Planetary Systems: Formation, Structure, and Dynamical Evolution , October 2010 , pp. 376 - 384
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2011

References

Allard, F. et al. 2001, ApJ, 556, 357CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Allen, C. W. 1976, Astrophysical Quantities (London: The Athlone Press)Google Scholar
Baraffe, I., Chabrier, G., Allard, F., & Hauschildt, P. 1998, A&A, 337, 403Google Scholar
Barnes, R., Jackson, B., Greenberg, R., & Raymond, S. N. 2009, ApJ, 700, L30CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bonfils, X., Forveille, T., Delfosse, X., et al. 2005, A&A, 443, L15Google Scholar
Chabrier, G., et al. 2000, ApJ, 542, 464CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Christensen, P. R. & Pearl, J. C. 1997, J. Geophys. Res., 102, 10875CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cowan, N. B. et al. 2009, ApJ, 700, 915Google Scholar
Cox, A. N. IV, 2000, Allen's Astrophysical Quantities, (4th ed; New York: AIP)Google Scholar
Delfosse, X., Forveille, T., Perrier, C., & Mayor, M. 1998, A&A, 331, 581Google Scholar
Dole, S. H. 1964, Habitable Planets for Man, Blaisdell Publishing, New York.Google Scholar
Dressing, C. D., Spiegel, D. S., Scharf, C. A., Menou, K., & Raymond, S. N. 2010, ApJ, 721, 1295CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edson, A., Lee, S., Bannon, P., Kasting, J. F., & Pollard, D., 2011, Icarus, 212, 1CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Forget, F. & Pierrehumbert, R. T. 1997, Science, 278, 1273CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fujii, Y., et al. 2011, ApJ in press (http://arxiv.org/abs/1102.3625)Google Scholar
Goldblatt, C, Zahnle, K. 2011, Climate of the Past, 7, 203CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grillmair, C. 2008, Nature, 456, 767CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haberle, R. M., McKay, C., Tyler, D., & Reynolds, R. 1996, in Circumstellar Habitable Zones, edited by Doyle, L.R., Travis House, Menlo Park, CA, 29Google Scholar
Haqq-Misra, J. D., Domagal-Goldman, S. D., Kasting, P. J., & Kasting, J. F. 2008, Astrobiology, 8, 1127Google Scholar
Hart, M. H. 1978, Icarus, 33, 23CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heller, R., et al. 2011, A&A, 528, A27Google Scholar
Heng, K., Menou, K., & Phillipps, P. J. 2011, MNRAS, 413, 2380Google Scholar
Henning, W. G., OConnell, R. J., & Sasselov, D. D. 2009, ApJ, 707, 1000CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holland, H. D. 2002, Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta, 66, 3811CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Houghton, J. T., Meira Filho, L. G., & Callander, B. A., et al. 1995, Climate Change 1994: Radiative Forcing of Climate Change and an Evaluation of the IPCC IS92 Emission Scenarios (Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press)Google Scholar
Irion, B. et al. 2002, Applied Optics, 41, 33, 6968CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, J. A. & Apps, K. 2009, ApJ, 699, 933CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Joshi, M. 2003, Astrobiology, 3, 415CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Joshi, M. M., Haberle, R. M., & Reynolds, R. T. 1997, Icarus, 129, 450CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaltenegger, L., Traub, W. A., & Jucks, K. W. 2007, ApJ, 658, 598CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaltenegger, L. & Traub, W. 2009, ApJ, 698, 519CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaltenegger, L., Sasselov, D. 2009, ApJ, 708, 1162CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaltenegger, L., Selsis, F., et al. 2010a, Astrobiology, 10, 25Google Scholar
Kaltenegger, L., Eiroa, C., Ribas, I., et al. 2010b, Astrobiology, 10, 103CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaltenegger, L., Henning, W. G., & Sasselov, D. D. 2010c, AJ, 140, 1370CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kasting, J. F. 1990, Origins Life Evol. Bios., 20, 199CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kasting, J. F., Pollack, J. B., Ackerman, T. P. 1984a, Icarus, 57, 335Google Scholar
Kasting, J. F., Pollack, J. B., & Crisp, D. 1984b, J. Atmos. Chem, 1, 403CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kasting, J. F. & Ackerman, T. P. 1986, Science, 234, 1383CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kasting, J. F., Whitmire, D. P., & Reynolds, R. T. 1993, Icarus, 101, 108CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kasting, J. F. & Catling, D. 2003, ARA&A, 41, 429Google Scholar
Kharecha, P., Kasting, J. F., & Siefert, J. L. 2005, Geobiol., 3, 53Google Scholar
Kitzmann, D., Patzer, A. B. C., von Paris, P., Godolt, M., Stracke, B., Gebauer, S., Grenfell, J. L., & Rauer, H. 2010, A&A 511, A66Google Scholar
Leconte, J., Chabrier, G., Baraffe, I., & Levrard, B. 2010, A&A, 516, A64+Google Scholar
Leger, A., et al. 2009, A&A, 506, 287Google Scholar
Mayor, M., Udry, S., Lovis, C., Pepe, F., Queloz, D., Benz, W., Bertaux, J.-L., Bouchy, F., Mordasini, C., & Segransan, D., 2009, A&A, 493, 639Google Scholar
Mischna, M. A., Kasting, J. F., Pavlov, A., & Freedman, R. 2000, Icarus, 145, 546CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pavlov, A. A., Kasting, J. F., Brown, L. L., Rages, K. A., & Freedman, R. 2000, J. Geophys. Res., 105, 11981CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pollack, J. B., Kasting, J. F., Richardson, S. M., & Poliakoff, K. 1987, Icarus, 71, 203CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rothman, L. S., Jacquemart, D., Barbe, A., et al. 2004, JQSRT, 96, 139CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rothman, L. S., Gordon, I. E., Barbe, A., et al. 2009, JQSRT, in pressGoogle Scholar
Sasselov, D. D., Valencia, D., & O'Connell, R. J. 2008, Phys. Scr., T130, 014035Google Scholar
Scalo, J., Kaltenegger, L., Segura, A., et al. 2007, Astrobiology, 7, 85CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seager, S. et al. 2007, ApJ, 669, 1279Google Scholar
Segura, A., Krelove, K., Kasting, J. F., Sommerlatt, D., Meadows, V., Crisp, D., Cohen, M., & Mlawer, E. 2003, Astrobiology, 3, 689Google Scholar
Segura, A., Kasting, J. F., Meadows, V., Cohen, M., Scalo, J., Crisp, D., Butler, P., & Tinetti, G. 2005, Astrobiology, 5, 706CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Segura, A., Meadows, V. S., Kasting, J. F., Cohen, M., & Crisp, D. 2007, A&A, 472, 665Google Scholar
Selsis, F. 2002, ESA-SP, 514, 251Google Scholar
Selsis, F., Kasting, J. F., Levrard, B., Paillet, J., Ribas, I., & Delfosse, X. 2007, A&A, 476, 1373Google Scholar
Sotin, C., Grasset, O., & Mocquet, A. 2007, Icarus, 191, 337CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spiegel, D. S., Menou, K., & Scharf, C. A. 2009, ApJ, 691, 596CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spiegel, D. S., Raymond, S. N., Dressing, C. D., Scharf, C. A., & Mitchell, J. L. 2010, ApJ, 721, 1308CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Swain, M. R., Vasisht, G., & Tinetti, G., 2008, Nature, 452, 329CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tarter, J. C., et al. 2007, Astrobiology, 7, 66CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Traub, W. A. & Stier, M. T. 1978, ApJ, 226, 347Google Scholar
Traub, W. A. & Jucks, K. 2002, in Atmospheres in the Solar System: Comparative Aeronomy. Geophysical Monograph 130. Edited by Michael Mendillo, Andrew Nagy, and J.H. Waite. Washington, D.C.: American Geophysical Union, p. 369CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Udry, S., Bonfils, X., Delfosse, X., et al. 2007, A&A, 469, L43Google Scholar
Valencia, D., O'Connell, R. J., & Sasselov, D. D. 2006, Icarus, 181, 545CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Valencia, D., Sasselov, D. D., & OConnell, R. 2007a, ApJ, 665, 1413Google Scholar
Valencia, D., O'Connell, R., & Sasselov, D. D. 2007b, ApJ, 670, L45CrossRefGoogle Scholar
von Bloh, W., Bounama, C., Cuntz, M., & Franck, S. 2007, A&A, 476, 1365Google Scholar
von Braun, K., et al. 2011, ApJ, 729, L26Google Scholar
von Paris, P., Gebauer, S., Godolt, M., et al. 2010, A&A, 522, A23+Google Scholar
Walker, J. C. G., Hays, P. B., & Kasting, J. F. 1981, J. Geophys. Res., 86, 9776CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walkowicz, L., Johns-Krull, C., & Hawley, S. 2008, ApJ, 677, 593CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, D. M. & Pollard, D. 2002, International Journal of Astrobiology, 1, 61CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wordsworth, R. D., Forget, F., Selsis, F., et al. 2010, A&A, 522, A22+Google Scholar
Wordsworth, R. D., Forget, F., Selsis, F., et al. 2011, ApJ, 733, L48CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yung, Y. L. & DeMore, W. B. 1999, Photochemistry of planetary atmospheres, Oxford University Press, New York, N.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zahnle, K., Arndt, N., Cockell, C., et al. 2007, SSRv, 129, 35Google Scholar