arXiv subjects

Edwin Kite

Publications and source records attributed to Edwin Kite.

10 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

JWST MIRI reveals a potential atmosphere on the ultra-hot rocky planet TOI-431b

An open question in exoplanet science is whether rocky exoplanets extremely close in to their host stars, `lava worlds', can retain significant atmospheres. Thermal emission observations via secondary eclipse can be used to determine whether a rocky exoplanet possesses an atmosphere. It is expected that an atmosphere could increase the planet's albedo and/or redistribute heat away from the dayside, reducing the secondary eclipse depth measured. Recent eclipse observations of lava planets, rocky planets hot enough to have liquid magma surfaces, have suggested the presence of atmospheres. Here, we present a single JWST MIRI/LRS partial secondary eclipse of the lava planet TOI-431b. We measure an eclipse depth of 81 $\pm$ 16 ppm, which corresponds to a brightness temperature of $1967^{+237}_{-253}$ K and a brightness temperature ratio R = $0.81\pm0.10$, being 1.2 $\sigma$ higher than the value reported by Spitzer. The observed brightness temperature ratio is 1.8$\sigma$ below that of a zero-albedo, zero heat redistribution bare rock (R=1). Given that magma pools are expected to have low albedos, we find that our results are best explained by the presence of an atmosphere. Future work to measure the exact composition of TOI-431b's atmosphere and improve models of lava planet atmospheres would better constrain the nature and evolution of lava planets.

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arXiv2024

A dark, bare rock for TOI-1685 b from a JWST NIRSpec G395H phase curve

We report JWST NIRSpec/G395H observations of TOI-1685 b, a hot rocky super-Earth orbiting an M2.5V star, during a full orbit. We obtain transmission and emission spectra of the planet and characterize the properties of the phase curve, including its amplitude and offset. The transmission spectrum rules out clear H$_2$-dominated atmospheres, while secondary atmospheres (made of water, methane, or carbon dioxide) cannot be statistically distinguished from a flat line. The emission spectrum is featureless and consistent with a blackbody-like brightness temperature, helping rule out thick atmospheres with high mean molecular weight. Collecting all evidence, the properties of TOI-1685 b are consistent with a blackbody with no heat redistribution and a low albedo, with a dayside brightness temperature 0.98$\pm$0.07 times that of a perfect blackbody in the NIRSpec NRS2 wavelength range (3.823-5.172 um). Our results add to the growing number of seemingly airless M-star rocky planets, thus constraining the location of the "Cosmic Shoreline". Three independent data reductions have been carried out, all showing a high-amplitude correlated noise component in the white and spectroscopic light curves. The correlated noise properties are different between the NRS1 and NRS2 detectors - importantly the timescales of the strongest components (4.5 hours and 2.5 hours, respectively) - suggesting the noise is from instrumental rather than astrophysical origins. We encourage the community to look into the systematics of NIRSpec for long time-series observations.

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arXiv2023

A roadmap for the atmospheric characterization of terrestrial exoplanets with JWST

Ultra-cool dwarf stars are abundant, long-lived, and uniquely suited to enable the atmospheric study of transiting terrestrial companions with JWST. Amongst them, the most prominent is the M8.5V star TRAPPIST-1 and its seven planets. While JWST Cycle 1 observations have started to yield preliminary insights into the planets, they have also revealed that their atmospheric exploration requires a better understanding of their host star. Here, we propose a roadmap to characterize the TRAPPIST-1 system -- and others like it -- in an efficient and robust manner. We notably recommend that -- although more challenging to schedule -- multi-transit windows be prioritized to mitigate the effects of stellar activity and gather up to twice more transits per JWST hour spent. We conclude that, for such systems, planets cannot be studied in isolation by small programs, but rather need large-scale, jointly space- and ground-based initiatives to fully exploit the capabilities of JWST for the exploration of terrestrial planets.

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arXiv2023

Narrow loophole for H2-dominated atmospheres on habitable rocky planets around M dwarfs

Habitable rocky planets around M dwarfs that have H2-dominated atmospheres, if they exist, would permit characterizing habitable exoplanets with detailed spectroscopy using JWST, owing to their extended atmospheres and small stars. However, the H2-dominated atmospheres that are consistent with habitable conditions cannot be too massive, and a moderate-size H2-dominated atmosphere will lose mass to irradiation-driven atmospheric escape on rocky planets around M dwarfs. We evaluate volcanic outgassing and serpentinization as two potential ways to supply H2 and form a steady-state H2-dominated atmosphere. For rocky planets of 1-7 Earth mass and early, mid, and late M dwarfs, the expected volcanic outgassing rates from a reduced mantle fall short of the escape rates by >~1 order of magnitude, and a generous upper limit of the serpentinization rate is still less than the escape rate by a factor of a few. Special mechanisms that may sustain the steady-state H2-dominated atmosphere include direct interaction between liquid water and mantle, heat-pipe volcanism from a reduced mantle, and hydrodynamic escape slowed down by efficient upper-atmospheric cooling. It is thus unlikely to find moderate-size, H2-dominated atmospheres on rocky planets of M dwarfs that would support habitable environments.

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arXiv2022

Energetic constraints on ocean circulations of icy ocean worlds

Globally ice-covered oceans have been found on multiple moons in the solar system and may also have been a feature of Earth's past. However, relatively little is understood about the dynamics of these ice-covered oceans, which affect not only the physical environment but also any potential life and its detectability. A number of studies have simulated the circulation of icy-world oceans, but have come to seemingly widely different conclusions. To better understand and narrow down these diverging results, we discuss energetic constraints for the circulation on ice-covered oceans, focusing in particular on Snowball Earth, Europa, and Enceladus. Energy input that can drive ocean circulation on ice-covered bodies can be associated with heat and salt fluxes at the boundaries as well as ocean tides and librations. We show that heating from the solid core balanced by heat loss through the ice sheet can drive an ocean circulation, but the resulting flows would be relatively weak and strongly affected by rotation. Salt fluxes associated with freezing and melting at the ice sheet boundary are unlikely to energetically drive a circulation, although they can shape the large-scale circulation when combined with turbulent mixing. Ocean tides and librations may provide an energy source for such turbulence, but the magnitude of this energy source remains highly uncertain for the icy moons, which poses a major obstacle to predicting the ocean dynamics of icy worlds and remains as an important topic for future research.

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arXiv2021

Unveiling shrouded oceans on temperate sub-Neptunes via transit signatures of solubility equilibria vs. gas thermochemistry

The recent discovery and initial characterization of sub-Neptune-sized exoplanets that receive stellar irradiance of approximately Earth's raised the prospect of finding habitable planets in the coming decade, because some of these temperate planets may support liquid water oceans if they do not have massive H2/He envelopes and are thus not too hot at the bottom of the envelopes. For planets larger than Earth, and especially planets in the 1.7-3.5 R_Earth population, the mass of the H2/He envelope is typically not sufficiently constrained to assess the potential habitability. Here we show that the solubility equilibria vs. thermochemistry of carbon and nitrogen gases results in observable discriminators between small H2 atmospheres vs. massive ones, because the condition to form a liquid-water ocean and that to achieve the thermochemical equilibrium are mutually exclusive. The dominant carbon and nitrogen gases are typically CH4 and NH3 due to thermochemical recycling in a massive atmosphere of a temperate planet, and those in a small atmosphere overlying a liquid-water ocean are most likely CO2 and N2, followed by CO and CH4 produced photochemically. NH3 is depleted in the small atmosphere by dissolution into the liquid-water ocean. These gases lead to distinctive features in the planet's transmission spectrum, and a moderate number of repeated transit observations with the James Webb Space Telescope should tell apart a small atmosphere vs. a massive one on planets like K2-18 b. This method thus provides a way to use near-term facilities to constrain the atmospheric mass and habitability of temperate sub-Neptune exoplanets.

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arXiv2019

Analyzing Atmospheric Temperature Profiles and Spectra of M dwarf Rocky Planets

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will open up the possibility of comprehensively measuring the emission spectra of rocky exoplanets orbiting M dwarfs to detect and characterize their atmospheres. In preparation for this opportunity, we present model atmospheres for three M-dwarf planets particularly amenable to secondary eclipse spectroscopy -- TRAPPIST-1b, GJ 1132b, and LHS 3844b. Using three limiting cases of candidate atmospheric compositions (pure H2O, pure CO2 and solar abundances) we calculate temperature-pressure profiles and emission and reflection spectra in radiative-convective equilibrium, including the effects of a solid surface. We find that the atmospheric radiative transfer is significantly influenced by the cool M-star irradiation; H2O and CO2 absorption bands in the near-infrared are strong enough to absorb a sizeable fraction of the incoming stellar light at low pressures, which leads to temperature inversions in the upper atmosphere. The non-gray band structure of gaseous opacities in the infrared is hereby an important factor. Opacity windows are muted at higher atmospheric temperatures, so we expect temperature inversions to be common only for sufficiently cool planets. We also find that pure CO2 atmospheres exhibit lower overall temperatures and stronger reflection spectra compared to models of the other two compositions. We estimate that for GJ 1132b and LHS 3844b we should be able to distinguish between different atmospheric compositions with JWST. The emission lines from the predicted temperature inversions are currently hard to measure, but high resolution spectroscopy with future Extremely Large Telescopes may be able to detect them.

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arXiv2019

Identifying Candidate Atmospheres on Rocky M dwarf Planets via Eclipse Photometry

Most rocky planets in the galaxy orbit a cool host star, and there is large uncertainty among theoretical models whether these planets can retain an atmosphere. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) might be able to settle this question empirically, but most proposals for doing so require large observational effort because they are based on spectroscopy. Here we show that infrared photometry of secondary eclipses could quickly identify "candidate" atmospheres, by searching for rocky planets with atmospheres thick enough that atmospheric heat transport noticeably reduces their dayside thermal emission compared to that of a bare rock. For a planet amenable to atmospheric follow-up, we find that JWST should be able to confidently detect the heat redistribution signal of an O(1) bar atmosphere with one to two eclipses. One to two eclipses is generally much less than the effort needed to infer an atmosphere via transmission or emission spectroscopy. Candidate atmospheres can be further validated via follow-up spectroscopy or phase curves. In addition, because this technique is fast it could enable a first atmospheric survey of rocky exoplanets with JWST. We estimate that the TESS mission will find ~100 planets that are too hot to be habitable but that can be quickly probed via eclipse photometry. Knowing whether hot, rocky planets around M dwarfs have atmospheres is important not only for understanding the evolution of uninhabitable worlds: if atmospheres are common on hot planets, then cooler, potentially habitable planets around M dwarfs are also likely to have atmospheres.

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arXiv2019

The Super-Earth Opportunity - Search for Habitable Exoplanets in the 2020s

The recent discovery of a staggering diversity of planets beyond the Solar System has brought with it a greatly expanded search space for habitable worlds. The Kepler exoplanet survey has revealed that most planets in our interstellar neighborhood are larger than Earth and smaller than Neptune. Collectively termed super-Earths and mini-Neptunes, some of these planets may have the conditions to support liquid water oceans, and thus Earth-like biology, despite differing in many ways from our own planet. In addition to their quantitative abundance, super-Earths are relatively large and are thus more easily detected than true Earth twins. As a result, super-Earths represent a uniquely powerful opportunity to discover and explore a panoply of fascinating and potentially habitable planets in 2020 - 2030 and beyond.

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arXiv2019

Habitable zone predictions and how to test them

The habitable zone (HZ) is the region around a star(s) where standing bodies of water could exist on the surface of a rocky planet. The classical HZ definition makes a number of assumptions common to the Earth, including assuming that the most important greenhouse gases for habitable planets are CO2 and H2O, habitable planets orbit main-sequence stars, and that the carbonate-silicate cycle is a universal process on potentially habitable planets. Here, we discuss these and other predictions for the habitable zone and the observations that are needed to test them. We also, for the first time, argue why A-stars may be interesting HZ prospects. Instead of relying on unverified extrapolations from our Earth, we argue that future habitability studies require first principles approaches where temporal, spatial, physical, chemical, and biological systems are dynamically coupled. We also suggest that next-generation missions are only the beginning of a much more data-filled era in the not-too-distant future, when possibly hundreds to thousands of HZ planets will yield the statistical data we need to go beyond just finding habitable zone planets to actually determining which ones are most likely to exhibit life.

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