A temperate Earth-sized planet with tidal heating transiting an M6 star

Merrin S Peterson; Björn Benneke; Karen Collins; Caroline Piaulet; Ian J M Crossfield; Mohamad Ali-Dib; Jessie L Christiansen; Jonathan Gagné; Jackie Faherty; Edwin Kite; Courtney Dressing; David Charbonneau; Felipe Murgas; Marion Cointepas; Jose Manuel Almenara; Xavier Bonfils; Stephen Kane; Michael W Werner; Varoujan Gorjian; Pierre-Alexis Roy; Avi Shporer; Francisco J Pozuelos; Quentin Jay Socia; Ryan Cloutier; Jeremy Dietrich; Jonathan Irwin; Lauren Weiss; William Waalkes; Zach Berta-Thomson; Thomas Evans; Daniel Apai; Hannu Parviainen; Enric Pallé; Norio Narita; Andrew W Howard; Diana Dragomir; Khalid Barkaoui; Michaël Gillon; Emmanuel Jehin; Elsa Ducrot; Zouhair Benkhaldoun; Akihiko Fukui; Mayuko Mori; Taku Nishiumi; Kiyoe Kawauchi; George Ricker; David W Latham; Joshua N Winn; Sara Seager; Howard Isaacson; Alex Bixel; Aidan Gibbs; Jon M Jenkins; Jeffrey C Smith; Jose Perez Chavez; Benjamin V Rackham; Thomas Henning; Paul Gabor; Wen-Ping Chen; Nestor Espinoza; Eric L N Jensen; Kevin I Collins; Richard P Schwarz; Dennis M Conti; Gavin Wang; John F Kielkopf; Shude Mao; Keith Horne; Ramotholo Sefako; Samuel N Quinn; Dan Moldovan; Michael Fausnaugh; Gábor Fűűrész; Thomas Barclay

doi:10.1038/s41586-023-05934-8

A temperate Earth-sized planet with tidal heating transiting an M6 star

Merrin S Peterson, Björn Benneke^*, Karen Collins, Caroline Piaulet, Ian J M Crossfield, Mohamad Ali-Dib, Jessie L Christiansen, Jonathan Gagné, Jackie Faherty, Edwin Kite, Courtney Dressing, David Charbonneau, Felipe Murgas, Marion Cointepas, Jose Manuel Almenara, Xavier Bonfils, Stephen Kane, Michael W Werner, Varoujan Gorjian, Pierre-Alexis RoyAvi Shporer, Francisco J Pozuelos, Quentin Jay Socia, Ryan Cloutier, Jeremy Dietrich, Jonathan Irwin, Lauren Weiss, William Waalkes, Zach Berta-Thomson, Thomas Evans, Daniel Apai, Hannu Parviainen, Enric Pallé, Norio Narita, Andrew W Howard, Diana Dragomir, Khalid Barkaoui, Michaël Gillon, Emmanuel Jehin, Elsa Ducrot, Zouhair Benkhaldoun, Akihiko Fukui, Mayuko Mori, Taku Nishiumi, Kiyoe Kawauchi, George Ricker, David W Latham, Joshua N Winn, Sara Seager, Howard Isaacson, Alex Bixel, Aidan Gibbs, Jon M Jenkins, Jeffrey C Smith, Jose Perez Chavez, Benjamin V Rackham, Thomas Henning, Paul Gabor, Wen-Ping Chen, Nestor Espinoza, Eric L N Jensen, Kevin I Collins, Richard P Schwarz, Dennis M Conti, Gavin Wang, John F Kielkopf, Shude Mao, Keith Horne, Ramotholo Sefako, Samuel N Quinn, Dan Moldovan, Michael Fausnaugh, Gábor Fűűrész, Thomas Barclay

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Temperate Earth-sized exoplanets around late-M dwarfs offer a rare opportunity to explore under which conditions planets can develop hospitable climate conditions. The small stellar radius amplifies the atmospheric transit signature, making even compact secondary atmospheres dominated by N₂ or CO₂ amenable to characterization with existing instrumentation. Yet, despite large planet search efforts, detection of low-temperature Earth-sized planets around late-M dwarfs has remained rare and the TRAPPIST-1 system, a resonance chain of rocky planets with seemingly identical compositions, has not yet shown any evidence of volatiles in the system . Here we report the discovery of a temperate Earth-sized planet orbiting the cool M6 dwarf LP 791-18. The newly discovered planet, LP 791-18d, has a radius of 1.03 ± 0.04 R_⊕ and an equilibrium temperature of 300-400 K, with the permanent night side plausibly allowing for water condensation. LP 791-18d is part of a coplanar system and provides a so-far unique opportunity to investigate a temperate exo-Earth in a system with a sub-Neptune that retained its gas or volatile envelope. On the basis of observations of transit timing variations, we find a mass of 7.1 ± 0.7 M_⊕ for the sub-Neptune LP 791-18c and a mass of 0.9^+0.5_-0.4 M_⊕ for the exo-Earth LP 791-18d. The gravitational interaction with the sub-Neptune prevents the complete circularization of LP 791-18d's orbit, resulting in continued tidal heating of LP 791-18d's interior and probably strong volcanic activity at the surface.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	701-705
Number of pages	5
Journal	Nature
Volume	617
Issue number	7962
Early online date	17 May 2023
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-05934-8
Publication status	Published - 25 May 2023

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10.1038/s41586-023-05934-8

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Peterson, M. S., Benneke, B., Collins, K., Piaulet, C., Crossfield, I. J. M., Ali-Dib, M., Christiansen, J. L., Gagné, J., Faherty, J., Kite, E., Dressing, C., Charbonneau, D., Murgas, F., Cointepas, M., Almenara, J. M., Bonfils, X., Kane, S., Werner, M. W., Gorjian, V., ... Barclay, T. (2023). A temperate Earth-sized planet with tidal heating transiting an M6 star. Nature, 617(7962), 701-705. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-05934-8

@article{f655b7702762410ba3e950c8f43840c0,

title = "A temperate Earth-sized planet with tidal heating transiting an M6 star",

abstract = "Temperate Earth-sized exoplanets around late-M dwarfs offer a rare opportunity to explore under which conditions planets can develop hospitable climate conditions. The small stellar radius amplifies the atmospheric transit signature, making even compact secondary atmospheres dominated by N2 or CO2 amenable to characterization with existing instrumentation. Yet, despite large planet search efforts, detection of low-temperature Earth-sized planets around late-M dwarfs has remained rare and the TRAPPIST-1 system, a resonance chain of rocky planets with seemingly identical compositions, has not yet shown any evidence of volatiles in the system . Here we report the discovery of a temperate Earth-sized planet orbiting the cool M6 dwarf LP 791-18. The newly discovered planet, LP 791-18d, has a radius of 1.03 ± 0.04 R⊕ and an equilibrium temperature of 300-400 K, with the permanent night side plausibly allowing for water condensation. LP 791-18d is part of a coplanar system and provides a so-far unique opportunity to investigate a temperate exo-Earth in a system with a sub-Neptune that retained its gas or volatile envelope. On the basis of observations of transit timing variations, we find a mass of 7.1 ± 0.7 M⊕ for the sub-Neptune LP 791-18c and a mass of 0.9+0.5-0.4 M⊕ for the exo-Earth LP 791-18d. The gravitational interaction with the sub-Neptune prevents the complete circularization of LP 791-18d's orbit, resulting in continued tidal heating of LP 791-18d's interior and probably strong volcanic activity at the surface. ",

author = "Peterson, {Merrin S} and Bj{\"o}rn Benneke and Karen Collins and Caroline Piaulet and Crossfield, {Ian J M} and Mohamad Ali-Dib and Christiansen, {Jessie L} and Jonathan Gagn{\'e} and Jackie Faherty and Edwin Kite and Courtney Dressing and David Charbonneau and Felipe Murgas and Marion Cointepas and Almenara, {Jose Manuel} and Xavier Bonfils and Stephen Kane and Werner, {Michael W} and Varoujan Gorjian and Pierre-Alexis Roy and Avi Shporer and Pozuelos, {Francisco J} and Socia, {Quentin Jay} and Ryan Cloutier and Jeremy Dietrich and Jonathan Irwin and Lauren Weiss and William Waalkes and Zach Berta-Thomson and Thomas Evans and Daniel Apai and Hannu Parviainen and Enric Pall{\'e} and Norio Narita and Howard, {Andrew W} and Diana Dragomir and Khalid Barkaoui and Micha{\"e}l Gillon and Emmanuel Jehin and Elsa Ducrot and Zouhair Benkhaldoun and Akihiko Fukui and Mayuko Mori and Taku Nishiumi and Kiyoe Kawauchi and George Ricker and Latham, {David W} and Winn, {Joshua N} and Sara Seager and Howard Isaacson and Alex Bixel and Aidan Gibbs and Jenkins, {Jon M} and Smith, {Jeffrey C} and Chavez, {Jose Perez} and Rackham, {Benjamin V} and Thomas Henning and Paul Gabor and Wen-Ping Chen and Nestor Espinoza and Jensen, {Eric L N} and Collins, {Kevin I} and Schwarz, {Richard P} and Conti, {Dennis M} and Gavin Wang and Kielkopf, {John F} and Shude Mao and Keith Horne and Ramotholo Sefako and Quinn, {Samuel N} and Dan Moldovan and Michael Fausnaugh and G{\'a}bor F{\H u}{\H u}r{\'e}sz and Thomas Barclay",

note = "Funding: The material presented here is based on work supported in part by NASA under contract no. NNX15AI75G. B.B. and M.S.P. acknowledge financial support by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the Fonds de Recherche Qu{\'e}b{\'e}cois—Nature et Technologie (FRQNT; Qu{\'e}bec). Funding for the TESS mission is provided by the NASA Explorer Program. Resources supporting this work were provided by the NASA High-End Computing Program through the NASA Advanced Supercomputing Division at Ames Research Center for the production of the SPOC data products. STScI is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract no. NAS 5–26555. The Mid-Scale Innovations Program is supported by the National Science Foundation. This paper includes data taken from the EDEN telescope network, and we acknowledge support from the Earths in Other Solar Systems Project and Alien Earths (grant nos. NNX15AD94G and 80NSSC21K0593) sponsored by NASA. The authors acknowledge funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the grant agreement no. 337591-ExTrA. R.C. is supported by a grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in support of the TESS science mission. The MEarth Team gratefully acknowledges funding from the David and Lucile Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering (awarded to D.C.). This material is based on work supported by the National Science Foundation under grant nos. AST-0807690, AST-1109468, AST-1004488 (Alan T. Waterman Award) and AST-1616624. This work is made possible by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation. This material is based on work supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under grant no. 80NSSC18K0476 issued through the XRP Program. M.S.P. and C.P. acknowledge support from FRQNT Master{\textquoteright}s and PhD scholarships. The authors acknowledge support from the Earths in Other Solar Systems Project, grant no. 3013511 sponsored by NASA. The research leading to these results has received funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC) grant for Concerted Research Actions, financed by the Wallonia-Brussels Federation. TRAPPIST is supported by the Belgian Fund for Scientific Research (Fond National de la Recherche Scientifique, FNRS) under the grant no. FRFC 2.5.594.09.F. TRAPPIST-North is a project supported by the University of Li{\`e}ge (Belgium), in collaboration with Cadi Ayyad University of Marrakech (Morocco). The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union{\textquoteright}s Seventh Framework Programme (grant no. FP/2007-2013) ERC grant agreement no 336480, from the ARC grant for Concerted Research Actions, financed by the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, from a research grant from the Balzan Prize Foundation, and funding from the European Research Council under the European Union{\textquoteright}s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement no. 803193/BEBOP), from the Mobilising European Research in Astrophysics and Cosmology foundation, and from the Science and Technology Facilities Council (grant no. ST/S00193X/1). This work is partly supported by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) KAKENHI grant nos. JP17H04574, JP18H05439, Grant-in-Aid for JSPS Fellows, grant no. JP20J21872, Japan Science and Technolocy (JST) PRESTO grant no. JPMJPR1775, JST CREST grant no. JPMJCR1761 and the Astrobiology Center of National Institutes of Natural Sciences (grant no. AB031010). F.J.P. acknowledges financial support from the grant no. CEX2021-001131-S supported by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033. R.C. acknowledges support from the Banting fellowship.",

year = "2023",

month = may,

day = "25",

doi = "10.1038/s41586-023-05934-8",

language = "English",

volume = "617",

pages = "701--705",

journal = "Nature",

issn = "0028-0836",

publisher = "Nature Research",

number = "7962",

}

Peterson, MS, Benneke, B, Collins, K, Piaulet, C, Crossfield, IJM, Ali-Dib, M, Christiansen, JL, Gagné, J, Faherty, J, Kite, E, Dressing, C, Charbonneau, D, Murgas, F, Cointepas, M, Almenara, JM, Bonfils, X, Kane, S, Werner, MW, Gorjian, V, Roy, P-A, Shporer, A, Pozuelos, FJ, Socia, QJ, Cloutier, R, Dietrich, J, Irwin, J, Weiss, L, Waalkes, W, Berta-Thomson, Z, Evans, T, Apai, D, Parviainen, H, Pallé, E, Narita, N, Howard, AW, Dragomir, D, Barkaoui, K, Gillon, M, Jehin, E, Ducrot, E, Benkhaldoun, Z, Fukui, A, Mori, M, Nishiumi, T, Kawauchi, K, Ricker, G, Latham, DW, Winn, JN, Seager, S, Isaacson, H, Bixel, A, Gibbs, A, Jenkins, JM, Smith, JC, Chavez, JP, Rackham, BV, Henning, T, Gabor, P, Chen, W-P, Espinoza, N, Jensen, ELN, Collins, KI, Schwarz, RP, Conti, DM, Wang, G, Kielkopf, JF, Mao, S, Horne, K, Sefako, R, Quinn, SN, Moldovan, D, Fausnaugh, M, Fűűrész, G & Barclay, T 2023, 'A temperate Earth-sized planet with tidal heating transiting an M6 star', Nature, vol. 617, no. 7962, pp. 701-705. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-05934-8

TY - JOUR

T1 - A temperate Earth-sized planet with tidal heating transiting an M6 star

AU - Peterson, Merrin S

AU - Benneke, Björn

AU - Collins, Karen

AU - Piaulet, Caroline

AU - Crossfield, Ian J M

AU - Ali-Dib, Mohamad

AU - Christiansen, Jessie L

AU - Gagné, Jonathan

AU - Faherty, Jackie

AU - Kite, Edwin

AU - Dressing, Courtney

AU - Charbonneau, David

AU - Murgas, Felipe

AU - Cointepas, Marion

AU - Almenara, Jose Manuel

AU - Bonfils, Xavier

AU - Kane, Stephen

AU - Werner, Michael W

AU - Gorjian, Varoujan

AU - Roy, Pierre-Alexis

AU - Shporer, Avi

AU - Pozuelos, Francisco J

AU - Socia, Quentin Jay

AU - Cloutier, Ryan

AU - Dietrich, Jeremy

AU - Irwin, Jonathan

AU - Weiss, Lauren

AU - Waalkes, William

AU - Berta-Thomson, Zach

AU - Evans, Thomas

AU - Apai, Daniel

AU - Parviainen, Hannu

AU - Pallé, Enric

AU - Narita, Norio

AU - Howard, Andrew W

AU - Dragomir, Diana

AU - Barkaoui, Khalid

AU - Gillon, Michaël

AU - Jehin, Emmanuel

AU - Ducrot, Elsa

AU - Benkhaldoun, Zouhair

AU - Fukui, Akihiko

AU - Mori, Mayuko

AU - Nishiumi, Taku

AU - Kawauchi, Kiyoe

AU - Ricker, George

AU - Latham, David W

AU - Winn, Joshua N

AU - Seager, Sara

AU - Isaacson, Howard

AU - Bixel, Alex

AU - Gibbs, Aidan

AU - Jenkins, Jon M

AU - Smith, Jeffrey C

AU - Chavez, Jose Perez

AU - Rackham, Benjamin V

AU - Henning, Thomas

AU - Gabor, Paul

AU - Chen, Wen-Ping

AU - Espinoza, Nestor

AU - Jensen, Eric L N

AU - Collins, Kevin I

AU - Schwarz, Richard P

AU - Conti, Dennis M

AU - Wang, Gavin

AU - Kielkopf, John F

AU - Mao, Shude

AU - Horne, Keith

AU - Sefako, Ramotholo

AU - Quinn, Samuel N

AU - Moldovan, Dan

AU - Fausnaugh, Michael

AU - Fűűrész, Gábor

AU - Barclay, Thomas

N1 - Funding: The material presented here is based on work supported in part by NASA under contract no. NNX15AI75G. B.B. and M.S.P. acknowledge financial support by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the Fonds de Recherche Québécois—Nature et Technologie (FRQNT; Québec). Funding for the TESS mission is provided by the NASA Explorer Program. Resources supporting this work were provided by the NASA High-End Computing Program through the NASA Advanced Supercomputing Division at Ames Research Center for the production of the SPOC data products. STScI is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract no. NAS 5–26555. The Mid-Scale Innovations Program is supported by the National Science Foundation. This paper includes data taken from the EDEN telescope network, and we acknowledge support from the Earths in Other Solar Systems Project and Alien Earths (grant nos. NNX15AD94G and 80NSSC21K0593) sponsored by NASA. The authors acknowledge funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the grant agreement no. 337591-ExTrA. R.C. is supported by a grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in support of the TESS science mission. The MEarth Team gratefully acknowledges funding from the David and Lucile Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering (awarded to D.C.). This material is based on work supported by the National Science Foundation under grant nos. AST-0807690, AST-1109468, AST-1004488 (Alan T. Waterman Award) and AST-1616624. This work is made possible by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation. This material is based on work supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under grant no. 80NSSC18K0476 issued through the XRP Program. M.S.P. and C.P. acknowledge support from FRQNT Master’s and PhD scholarships. The authors acknowledge support from the Earths in Other Solar Systems Project, grant no. 3013511 sponsored by NASA. The research leading to these results has received funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC) grant for Concerted Research Actions, financed by the Wallonia-Brussels Federation. TRAPPIST is supported by the Belgian Fund for Scientific Research (Fond National de la Recherche Scientifique, FNRS) under the grant no. FRFC 2.5.594.09.F. TRAPPIST-North is a project supported by the University of Liège (Belgium), in collaboration with Cadi Ayyad University of Marrakech (Morocco). The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (grant no. FP/2007-2013) ERC grant agreement no 336480, from the ARC grant for Concerted Research Actions, financed by the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, from a research grant from the Balzan Prize Foundation, and funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement no. 803193/BEBOP), from the Mobilising European Research in Astrophysics and Cosmology foundation, and from the Science and Technology Facilities Council (grant no. ST/S00193X/1). This work is partly supported by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) KAKENHI grant nos. JP17H04574, JP18H05439, Grant-in-Aid for JSPS Fellows, grant no. JP20J21872, Japan Science and Technolocy (JST) PRESTO grant no. JPMJPR1775, JST CREST grant no. JPMJCR1761 and the Astrobiology Center of National Institutes of Natural Sciences (grant no. AB031010). F.J.P. acknowledges financial support from the grant no. CEX2021-001131-S supported by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033. R.C. acknowledges support from the Banting fellowship.

PY - 2023/5/25

Y1 - 2023/5/25

N2 - Temperate Earth-sized exoplanets around late-M dwarfs offer a rare opportunity to explore under which conditions planets can develop hospitable climate conditions. The small stellar radius amplifies the atmospheric transit signature, making even compact secondary atmospheres dominated by N2 or CO2 amenable to characterization with existing instrumentation. Yet, despite large planet search efforts, detection of low-temperature Earth-sized planets around late-M dwarfs has remained rare and the TRAPPIST-1 system, a resonance chain of rocky planets with seemingly identical compositions, has not yet shown any evidence of volatiles in the system . Here we report the discovery of a temperate Earth-sized planet orbiting the cool M6 dwarf LP 791-18. The newly discovered planet, LP 791-18d, has a radius of 1.03 ± 0.04 R⊕ and an equilibrium temperature of 300-400 K, with the permanent night side plausibly allowing for water condensation. LP 791-18d is part of a coplanar system and provides a so-far unique opportunity to investigate a temperate exo-Earth in a system with a sub-Neptune that retained its gas or volatile envelope. On the basis of observations of transit timing variations, we find a mass of 7.1 ± 0.7 M⊕ for the sub-Neptune LP 791-18c and a mass of 0.9+0.5-0.4 M⊕ for the exo-Earth LP 791-18d. The gravitational interaction with the sub-Neptune prevents the complete circularization of LP 791-18d's orbit, resulting in continued tidal heating of LP 791-18d's interior and probably strong volcanic activity at the surface.

AB - Temperate Earth-sized exoplanets around late-M dwarfs offer a rare opportunity to explore under which conditions planets can develop hospitable climate conditions. The small stellar radius amplifies the atmospheric transit signature, making even compact secondary atmospheres dominated by N2 or CO2 amenable to characterization with existing instrumentation. Yet, despite large planet search efforts, detection of low-temperature Earth-sized planets around late-M dwarfs has remained rare and the TRAPPIST-1 system, a resonance chain of rocky planets with seemingly identical compositions, has not yet shown any evidence of volatiles in the system . Here we report the discovery of a temperate Earth-sized planet orbiting the cool M6 dwarf LP 791-18. The newly discovered planet, LP 791-18d, has a radius of 1.03 ± 0.04 R⊕ and an equilibrium temperature of 300-400 K, with the permanent night side plausibly allowing for water condensation. LP 791-18d is part of a coplanar system and provides a so-far unique opportunity to investigate a temperate exo-Earth in a system with a sub-Neptune that retained its gas or volatile envelope. On the basis of observations of transit timing variations, we find a mass of 7.1 ± 0.7 M⊕ for the sub-Neptune LP 791-18c and a mass of 0.9+0.5-0.4 M⊕ for the exo-Earth LP 791-18d. The gravitational interaction with the sub-Neptune prevents the complete circularization of LP 791-18d's orbit, resulting in continued tidal heating of LP 791-18d's interior and probably strong volcanic activity at the surface.

UR - https://rdcu.be/dcUNr

U2 - 10.1038/s41586-023-05934-8

DO - 10.1038/s41586-023-05934-8

M3 - Article

C2 - 37198481

SN - 0028-0836

VL - 617

SP - 701

EP - 705

JO - Nature

JF - Nature

IS - 7962

ER -

A temperate Earth-sized planet with tidal heating transiting an M6 star

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