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Formation and the Prospects of the Detection of Habitable Planets in Extreme Planetary Systems
Project Investigators: Nader Haghighipour
Summary
Many of extrasolar planetary systems contain multiple bodies with orbital characteristics unseen in our solar system (e.g. hot-Jupiters, and multiple giant planets and/or stellar companions on highly eccentric orbits). This project focuses on the possibility of the existence and formation of habitable planets in such extreme planetary systems.
Astrobiology Roadmap Objectives:
Project Progress
To understand the possibility of the existence of habitable planets in multi-planet systems, numerical integrations were carried out to identify the regions of stability of Earth-like objects in the systems of ? Andromedae (HZ=1.68-2 AU), 47 UMa (HZ=1.16-1.41 AU), GJ 876 (HZ=0.1-0.13 AU), and 55 Cancri (HZ=0.72-0.87 AU). Figure 1 shows the graphs of the lifetimes of an Earth-like planet, at different distances from the central stars of these systems, for 10 Myr. Results show that
1) the stable orbit of the newly discovered Earth-like planet of GJ 876 is stable
2) the orbit of the small close-in planet of 55 Cnc, as reported by McArthur et al. (2004) is unstable,
3) it is unlikely that ? Andromedae and GJ 876 harbor habitable planets,
4) the two systems of 47 UMa and 55 Cnc have stable habitable zones, and
5) the 55 Cnc system is harboring stable planet(s) in the region between 0.7 AU and 2.2 AU. The newly discovered Neptune-sized planet of this system is located in this region.To understand the effect of the perturbation of a stellar companion on the formation of habitable planets in binary stars systems, the late stage of terrestrial planet formation in such environments were simulated. Figure 2 shows some of the results for binary mass-ratios 0.5, 1.5. As shown here, it is possible to form Earth-like objects with substantial amount of water in the HZ of the primary star. The sizes of these planets and their water content vary with the semimajor axis and eccentricity of the stellar companion. Results indicate that Earth-like objects are formed in systems where the interaction between the giant planet and the secondary star is weak and the average eccentricity of the giant planet is small.
Stability of earth-like objects in the multiplanet systems,47 Uma, Upsilon Andromedae, GJ 876, and 55 Cnc.Formation of earth-like objects with substantial amounts of water in binary star systems.
Publications
Haghighipour, N. (2007). Habitability of Planets in Binaries. Extreme Solar Systems.
![Other Projects](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090825142138im_/http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/img/text/hd_other_projects_sa.gif)
- HANDBOOK OF STAR FORMING REGIONS
- A Rare low mass quadruple spectroscopic AND eclipsing binary
- A search for Main Belt Comets in Pan-STARRS 1
- A search for primordial water from deep in the Earth's mantle
- A spectroscopically unique Main Belt asteroid: 10537 (1991 RY16)
- A Supertree Analysis of the Metazoan Phylogeny
- Acquisition and Installation of a new Cameca ims 1280 ion microprobe
- Acquisition and Installation of Witec Confocal Raman microscope scanning system
- Amorphization of Crystalline Water Ice in the Solar System
- Assessing the likelihood of supernova impact of protoplanetary disks
- Carbonate Lithologies on Devon Island, Canada
- Chemistry and biology of ultramafic-hosted alkaline springs
- Chemistry of the NH3/H2O system
- DIVERSITY AND BIOGEOGRAPHY OF THE UNIQUE TROPICAL PHYLUM PLACOZOA
- Dynamical Evolution of Astroid Belt and the Parent Bodies of Iron Meteorites
- Ecology of a Hawaiian lava cave microbial mat
- FMARS Long Duration Mission: a simulation of manned Mars exploration in an analogue environment, Devon Island, Canada
- Formation and Detection of Hot-Earth Objects in Systems with Close-in Jupiters
- Formation and the Prospects of the Detection of Habitable Planets in Extreme Planetary Systems
- Formation of Molecular Hydrogen via Interaction of Ionizing Radiation with Hydrocarbon Ices in the Interstellar Medium
- Formation of Planetesimals in a Dynamically Evolving Nebula
- FU ORIONIS ERUPTIONS
- Ice Ages on Mars
- Ice at the Mars Phoenix Landing Site
- Ice on Main Belt Comets
- Icelandic subglacial lakes
- Mechanisms of Marine Microbial Community Structuring
- Mechanistical Studies on the Non-Equilibrium Chemistry of Unusual Carbon Oxide in Solar System Ices
- Modeling grain surface reaction pathways for large organic molecules
- Molecular Deuteration on grain surfaces
- NEWBORN BINARIES
- Observations and Models of comet 17P/Holmes
- Origin and Activation Mechanism of Main Belt Comets
- Origin of Irregular Satellites
- Recovery of comet 85P/Boethin for the Deep Impact Extended Mission
- Sediment-buried basement deep biosphere
- Serpentinazation and abiogenic methane in the Mariana Forearc
- Sleeping through the Arctic Martian Sol
- Spectropolarimetric studies of stars with hot jupiters
- TES study of intracrater low albedo deposits, Amazonis Planitia, Mars
- The delivery of short-lived radionucleides to the solar system
- The effect of lunar-like satellites on the orbital infrared lightcurves of Earth-analog planets
- The Main Belt distribution of basaltic asteroids
- The Size Distribution of Small KBOs
- THE VYSOS PROJECT
- Ultra-violet processing of ices in the Rosette Nebula
- Unveiling the evolution and interplay of ice and gas in quiescent clouds
- Variable Young Stellar Objects Survey (VYSOS)
- Water on Mars
- X-ray- and UV-bright low-mass stars in the solar neighborhood