TRAPPIST-1 and PH
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firejuggler
Planets have been found around a M8 dwarf star ( what is TRAPPIST-1). Not onlyone, but three, and they seem to be earth sized, while most of our find are jovian sized . Are we able to find such star/planet system here, or are we 'limited' to more massive stars?
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ajebson
It is already confirmed as a target for K2 campaign 12 and for Hubble time. There's also some Spitzer photometry but it is still proprietary.
We can certainly find smaller planets, but it is hard
--- Tony
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JKD
in response to firejuggler's comment.
Good luck, bad luck!
You never can explore the entire Universe.
Congratulation and good luck to all teams searching for habitable exo-planets.JKD
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ajamyajax
in response to firejuggler's comment.
There are a fair number of smaller gas giants in the PH papers, but no rocky planets that I'm aware of. Or small red dwarfs. We continue to find possible smaller planet candidates here however, and since K1 too. But they are difficult to find and difficult to prove or confirm -- for everyone I presume. So many will remain just candidates for a long time, I think.
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ajebson
Interesting paper on X-ray and extreme UV irradiation of TRAPPIST-1 (from XMM/Newton).
Not very promising for the habitability of planets around M dwarfs:
On the timescale of a Gyr, all three planets could have have been stripped of atmospheres and oceans. Even at the wider possible separations, TRAPPIST-1d could be very substantially eroded, including for instance the entire H component of the UV photodissociated water content of the Earth.
But still a very exciting find as it allows so much follow-up!
--- Tony
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Another new paper - http://arxiv.org/pdf/1605.07352v1.pdf
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OSIRIS_REx
in response to ajebson's comment.
New Hubble data says that some of the outer TRAPPIST-1 planets could harbour liquid water and presumably atmospheres.
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