Bibcode
Belu, Adrian R.; Selsis, Franck; Raymond, Sean N.; Pallé, E.; Street, Rachel; Sahu, D. K.; von Braun, Kaspar; Bolmont, Emeline; Figueira, Pedro; Anupama, G. C.; Ribas, Ignasi
Bibliographical reference
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 768, Issue 2, article id. 125, 11 pp. (2013).
Advertised on:
5
2013
Journal
Citations
21
Refereed citations
15
Description
Given the very close proximity of their habitable zones, brown dwarfs
(BDs) represent high-value targets in the search for nearby transiting
habitable planets that may be suitable for follow-up occultation
spectroscopy. In this paper, we develop search strategies to find
habitable planets transiting BDs depending on their maximum habitable
orbital period (P HZ out). Habitable planets with P HZ
out shorter than the useful duration of a night (e.g., 8-10 hr)
can be screened with 100% completeness from a single location and in a
single night (near-IR). More luminous BDs require continuous monitoring
for longer duration, e.g., from space or from a longitude-distributed
network (one test scheduling achieved three telescopes, 13.5 contiguous
hours). Using a simulated survey of the 21 closest known BDs (within 7
pc) we find that the probability of detecting at least one transiting
habitable planet is between 4.5^{+5.6}_{-1.4}% and 56^{+31}_{-13}%,
depending on our assumptions. We calculate that BDs within 5-10 pc are
characterizable for potential biosignatures with a 6.5 m space telescope
using ~1% of a five-year mission's lifetime spread over a contiguous
segment only one-fifth to one-tenth of this duration.
Related projects
Exoplanets and Astrobiology
The search for life in the universe has been driven by recent discoveries of planets around other stars (known as exoplanets), becoming one of the most active fields in modern astrophysics. The growing number of new exoplanets discovered in recent years and the recent advance on the study of their atmospheres are not only providing new valuable
Enric
Pallé Bago
Exoplanets and Astrobiology
The search for life in the universe has been driven by recent discoveries of planets around other stars (known as exoplanets), becoming one of the most active fields in modern astrophysics. The growing number of new exoplanets discovered in recent years and the recent advance on the study of their atmospheres are not only providing new valuable
Enric
Pallé Bago