Potentially Habitable Exoplanets

[ProtoJeb21]

13 minutes ago, Spaceception said:

Yeah, has anyone looked for transits? That would be good too.

Are you going to email them about it? Or do you think they're just getting to it?

Tau Ceti will be observed by TESS, so if the inner planets transit, they should be detected. However, since all the planets are likely have inclinations similar to the system’s debris disk, they are unlikely to transit and would be much more massive. That doesn’t mean Tau Ceti e and f aren’t rocky. Lower metallicity stars are expected to have a harder time forming Mini-Neptunes and other gas planets because, due to the lack of heavier elements, it would take too long for planetary cores to form and get large enough to accumulate hydrogen atmospheres before the gas disk is blown away. That would explain why scientists were only able to find Super-Earths around Tau Ceti and no gas giants, even with years worth of data. I expect Tau Ceti e and f to be about 80-95% silicates and metals by mass with a water envelope, either as steam, liquid, or ice. 

I’m pretty sure they’ll get to those updates, eventually. Also, K2-72f may be confirmed soon, thanks to the work done by Ethan Kruse and his team, who have used processed EVEREST data to find 371 new planet candidates in K2 Campaigns 0 through 8. I sent him an email asking about his results for EPIC 220221272, K2-149, and K2-72, since his survey likely came across those systems. While it doesn’t seem like any of those 371 candidates are being confirmed just yet, his survey should provide valuable insight to not just K2-72f, but also many other systems and habitable zone worlds found on Exoplanet Explorers. 

[Bill Phil]

More importantly, when do the Lizards show up?

[ILoveStars]

what? K2-72 e is now the most earth-like planet we know of?

that's slightly disturbing.

[ILoveStars]

Tau ceti! Transit! Tau ceti! Transit! Tau ceti! Transit! Tau ceti! Transit! Tau ceti! Transit! Tau ceti! Transit! Tau ceti! Transit! Tau ceti! Transit!

[insert_name]

Evidence of liquid water has been found in the atmosphere of K2-18b

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02721-2

[Scotius]

Holy heck I remember times when we only theorised about extrasolar planets. And now we are able to observe rain in the atmosphere of Earth-like planet over a hundred lightyears away. So much changed in astronomy

[Spaceception]

I remember making this poll a long time ago, and I'm considering just deleting it. Feel it turns it too much into a popularity contest rather than discussion of, well, potentially habitable exoplanets. Thoughts?

 

Also, that news about K2-18b is incredible! I can't wait for when this starts getting as commonplace as finding exoplanets, and (more near-term I hope) when we get JWST to take a look at TRAPPIST-1

 

PHL also updated the list earlier this month with 2 planets fairly close to the size of Earth in the same system, and a super Earth.
GJ 1061 c/d, and GJ 357 d http://phl.upr.edu/projects/habitable-exoplanets-catalog
Planets around Teegarden's Star were also added since the last post here in January, and are also fairly close to the size of Earth. All good targets for direct imaging telescopes in the future.

Edited September 12, 2019 by Spaceception
some minor edits