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Rocky exoplanet characterization and atmospheres

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 February 2012

L. Kaltenegger ,
Y. Miguel  and
S. Rugheimer
L. Kaltenegger*
Affiliation:
MPIA, Koenigstuhl 17, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany CfA, 60 Garden street, Cambridge 02138 MA, USA
Y. Miguel
Affiliation:
MPIA, Koenigstuhl 17, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany
S. Rugheimer
Affiliation:
CfA, 60 Garden street, Cambridge 02138 MA, USA
*
e-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

A decade of exoplanet search has led to surprising discoveries, from giant planets close to their star, to planets orbiting two stars, all the way to the first extremely hot, rocky worlds with potentially permanent lava on their surfaces due to the star's proximity. Observation techniques have reached the sensitivity to explore the chemical composition of the atmospheres as well as physical structure of some detected gas planets and detect planets of less than 10 Earth masses (MEarth), the so-called super-Earths, among them some that may potentially be habitable. Three confirmed non-transiting planets, and several transiting Kepler planetary candidates, orbit in the habitable zone (HZ) of their host star. The detection and characterization of rocky and potentially Earth-like planets is approaching rapidly with future ground and space missions that can explore the planetary environments by analysing their atmosphere remotely. This paper discusses how to characterize a rocky exoplanet remotely.

Keywords

atmospheric biosignaturesHabitable ZoneExoplanetsEarthSuper-Earth
Type
Research Article
Information
International Journal of Astrobiology , Volume 11 , Issue 4: SPECIAL ISSUE: THE SAO PAULO ADVANCED SCHOOL OF ASTROBIOLOGY – SPASA 2011 , October 2012 , pp. 297 - 307
Copyright
Published by Cambridge University Press 2012

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