Posted on 01/23/2018 2:23:29 PM PST by Red Badger
A size comparison of the planets of the TRAPPIST-1 system, lined up in order of increasing distance from their host star. The planetary surfaces are portrayed with an artist’s impression of their potential surface features, including water, ice, and atmospheres. Amy Barr's paper “Interior Structures and Tidal Heating in the TRAPPIST-1 Planets” shows that planets d and e are the most likely to be habitable due to their moderate surface temperatures, modest amounts of tidal heating, and because their heat fluxes are low enough to avoid entering a runaway greenhouse state. Planet d is likely covered by a global water ocean. Credit: NASA/R. Hurt/T. Pyle
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Two exoplanets in the TRAPPIST-1 system have been identified as most likely to be habitable, a paper by PSI Senior Scientist Amy Barr says.
The TRAPPIST-1 system has been of great interest to observers and planetary scientists because it seems to contain seven planets that are all roughly Earth-sized, Barr and co-authors Vera Dobos and Laszlo L. Kiss said in "Interior Structures and Tidal Heating in the TRAPPIST-1 Planets" that appears in Astronomy & Astrophysics.
"Because the TRAPPIST-1 star is very old and dim, the surfaces of the planets have relatively cool temperatures by planetary standards, ranging from 400 degrees Kelvin (260 degrees Fahrenheit), which is cooler than Venus, to 167 degrees Kelvin (-159 degrees Fahrenheit), which is colder than Earth's poles," Barr said. "The planets also orbit very close to the star, with orbital periods of a few days. Because their orbits are eccentric –not quite circular – these planets could experience tidal heating just like the moons of Jupiter and Saturn."
"Assuming the planets are composed of water ice, rock, and iron, we determine how much of each might be present, and how thick the different layers would be. Because the masses and radii of the planets are not very well-constrained, we show the full range of possible interior structures and interior compositions." Barr said. The team's results show that improved estimates of the masses of each planet can help determine whether each of the planets has a significant amount of water.
The planets studied are referred to by letter, planets b through h, in order of their distance from the star. Analyses performed by co-author Vera Dobos show that planets d and e are the most likely to be habitable due to their moderate surface temperatures, modest amounts of tidal heating, and because their heat fluxes are low enough to avoid entering a runaway greenhouse state. A global water ocean likely covers planet d.
The team calculated the balance between tidal heating and heat transport by convection in the mantles of each planet. Results show that planets b and c likely have partially molten rock mantles. The paper also shows that planet c likely has a solid rock surface, and could have eruptions of silicate magmas on its surface driven by tidal heating, similar to Jupiter's moon Io.
Explore further: Astrophysicists identify composition of earth-size planets in TRAPPIST-1 system
More information: A. C. Barr et al. Interior structures and tidal heating in the TRAPPIST-1 planets, Astronomy & Astrophysics (2017). DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/201731992 , On Arxiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1712.05641
Journal reference: arXiv Astronomy & Astrophysics
Provided by: Planetary Science Institute
The Trappist system whew I assume vows of silence are required. Only inhabited by Mafia Dons .... Oh wait the Clintons just bought a place there!
If only they would leave the planet!
Now we just have to figure out exactly how to travel a trip of 39.6 light-years years to get there - if it’s even still there.
When we look up the Big Dipper we are seeing it as it was in the very distant past. I believe it looks more like a worm than a dipper now, if memory serves.
40 light years. So near but yet so far.
Planets b through h.
Did Darks do something to planet a?
The star is ‘A’.................
Well if it’s 39.6 light years, then it is more likely than not that it is still all there.
The good news is that they have great beer.
The bad news is that they’re probably tidally locked, which means the temperature variations are probably extreme, and you’ll never establish a sleep pattern.
The consolation news is that we don’t need to find habitable planets. For much lower levels of technology globally, the Earth could support a nice, SUBURBAN lifestyle for about 400 billion people (and still leave half for wilderness and parkland). And we can build orbiting Earth-like habitats for about a billion times more.
The only conceivable reason to populate other stars would be simply for their matter; eventually we’ll run out of planets to consume as we build our Dyson sphere.
Does the new planet system accept Uber?
It was infested already.
“The only conceivable reason to populate other stars would be simply for their matter; eventually we’ll run out of planets to consume as we build our Dyson sphere.”
Or use other star systems for military defense from hostile extraterrestrials.
You are full of bull.
How can you tell that foreign planet has good beer
if you have not yet tested their fermentation process and the type of hops they are using?
I am not saying its aliens, but ...
“Well if it’s 39.6 light years, then it is more likely than not that it is still all there.”
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Could be, but you’d never know until you got there. And, of course, that’s an even bigger problem - the getting there.
So no one will ever know if it can support any form of life or if it ever has. Humankind will be quite lucky if it manages to put a colony within our own solar system.
Observations with the Kepler K2 extension for a total of 79 days revealed starspots and infrequent weak optical flares at a rate of 0.38 per day (30-fold less frequent than for active M6–M9 dwarfs); a single strong flare appeared near the end of the observation period. The observed flaring activity possibly changes the atmospheres of the orbiting planets on a regular basis, making them less suitable for life. The star has a rotational period of 3.3 days.
Owing to its low luminosity, the star has the ability to live for up to 12 trillion years.
******
Oh well. There’s probably no life there, but maybe it would make a good home for future humans. Twelve trillion years is a long time.
Charles H. Duell was the Commissioner of US patent office in 1899. Mr. Deull’s most famous attributed utterance is that “everything that can be invented has been invented.”
Comte de Bufon: “Of one thing I am certain, we will never know what the stars are made of.”
You: So no one will ever know if it can support any form of life or if it ever has.
We’re talking about Trappist worlds... if you don’t know that means good beer, you don’t know beer. You do know beer, don’t you?
Oh, good point!
Two words: FLARE STAR. No, the system is not habitable. And by the way, we’ll never know if it is or not.
I have some bad news. A 150 pound man, who is has average hygiene, is carrying about five pounds of bacteria. The reason we can live with so much alien life in us, is we evolved to do so. If we ever set foot on a planet with life we haven’t evolved to defend against, or live with, the life there will literally eat us alive. The first time you have sex with a green alien woman will be your last.
“You: So no one will ever know if it can support any form of life or if it ever has.”
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I’m certainly up for hearing how you plan to travel 39.6 light years to TRAPPIST-1. (Now, there you’d have something most assuredly in need of patent protection.)
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