Share this

Article Facebook

Twitter

Email You are free to share this article under the Attribution 4.0 International license. University California Institute of Technology

Despite discovering hundreds of exoplanets known as “super-Earths,” astronomers still don’t know what they’re made of.

They’re larger than Earth but smaller than Nepture, and appear to be the most common type of exoplanet identified so far.

A super-Earth could be just that: a bigger version of Earth—mostly rocky, with an atmosphere. Then again, it could be a mini-Neptune, with a large rock-ice core encapsulated in a thick envelope of hydrogen and helium.

Or it could be a water world—a rocky core enveloped in a blanket of water and perhaps an atmosphere composed of steam (depending on the temperature of the planet).

“It’s really interesting to think about these planets because they could have so many different compositions, and knowing their composition will tell us a lot about how planets form,” says Heather Knutson, assistant professor of planetary science at California Institute of Technology (Caltech).

For example, because planets in this size range acquire most of their mass by pulling in and incorporating solid material, water worlds initially must have formed far away from their parent stars, where temperatures were cold enough for water to freeze. Most of the super-Earths known today orbit very close to their host stars. If water-dominated super-Earths turn out to be common, it would indicate that most of these worlds did not form in their present locations but instead migrated in from more distant orbits.

In addition to thinking about exoplanets, researchers use space-based observatories like the Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes to learn more about the distant worlds. For example, they analyze the starlight that filters through a planet’s atmosphere as it passes in front of its star to learn about the composition of the atmosphere.

Molecular species present in the planet’s atmosphere absorb light at particular wavelengths. Therefore, by using Hubble and Spitzer to view the planet and its atmosphere at a number of different wavelengths, the researchers can determine which chemical compounds are present.

To date, nearly two dozen planets have been characterized with this technique. These observations have shown that the enormous gas giant exoplanets known as hot-Jupiters have water, carbon monoxide, hydrogen, helium—and potentially carbon dioxide and methane—in their atmospheres.

Too cloudy

However, right now super-Earths are the hot topic. Unfortunately, although hundreds of super-Earths have been found, only a few are close enough and orbiting bright enough stars for astronomers to study in this way using currently available telescopes.

[related]

The first super-Earth that the astronomical community targeted for atmospheric studies was GJ 1214b, in the constellation Ophiuchus. Based on its average density (determined from its mass and radius), it was clear from the start that the planet was not entirely rocky.

However, its density could be equally well matched by either a primarily water composition or a Neptune-like composition with a rocky core surrounded by a thick gas envelope. Information about the atmosphere could help astronomers determine which one it was: a mini-Neptune’s atmosphere should contain lots of molecular hydrogen, while a water world’s atmosphere should be water dominated.

GJ 1214b has been a popular target for the Hubble Space Telescope since its discovery in 2009.

Disappointingly, after a first Hubble campaign led by researchers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, the spectrum came back featureless—there were no chemical signatures in the atmosphere. After a second set of more sensitive observations led by researchers at the University of Chicago returned the same result, it became clear that a high cloud deck must be masking the signature of absorption from the planet’s atmosphere.

“It’s exciting to know that there are clouds on the planet, but the clouds are getting in the way of what we actually wanted to know, which is what is this super-Earth made of?” explains Knutson.

Atmosphere without hydrogen?

Now Knutson’s team has studied a second super-Earth: HD 97658b, in the constellation Leo. The new findings are reported in the Astrophysical Journal.

The researchers used Hubble to measure the decrease in light when the planet passed in front of its parent star over a range of infrared wavelengths in order to detect small changes caused by water vapor in the planet’s atmosphere.

However, again the data came back featureless. One explanation is that HD 97658b is also enveloped in clouds. However, Knutson says, it is also possible that the planet has an atmosphere that is lacking hydrogen. Because such an atmosphere could be very compact, it would make the telltale fingerprints of water vapor and other molecules very small and hard to detect.

“Our data are not precise enough to tell whether it’s clouds or the absence of hydrogen in the atmosphere that’s causing the spectrum to be flat,” she says. “This was just a quick first look to give us a rough idea of what the atmosphere looked like. Over the next year, we will use Hubble to observe this planet again in more detail. We hope those observations will provide a clear answer to the current mystery.”

It appears that clouds are going to continue to pose a real challenge in studies of super-Earths, so Knutson and other researchers are working to understand the composition of the clouds around these planets and the conditions under which they form. The hope is that they will get to the point where they can predict which worlds will be shrouded in clouds.

“If we can then target planets that we think should be cloud-free, that will help us make optimal use of Hubble’s time,” she says.

There is only one more known super-Earth that can be targeted for atmospheric studies with current telescopes, Knutson says. But new surveys, such as NASA’s extended Kepler K2 mission and the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), slated for launch in 2017, should identify a large sample of new targets.

While astronomers would love to study exoplanets the size of Earth, these worlds are just a bit too small and too difficult to observe with Hubble and Spitzer. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, which is scheduled for launch in 2018, will provide the first opportunity to study more Earth-like worlds.

“Super-Earths are at the edge of what we can study right now,” Knutson says. “But super-Earths are a good consolation prize—they’re interesting in their own right, and they give us a chance to explore new kinds of worlds with no analog in our own solar system.”

Source: Caltech