J/ApJ/736/L25 Habitability of Kepler planetary candidates (Kaltenegger+, 2011) ================================================================================ Exploring the habitable zone for Kepler planetary candidates. Kaltenegger L., Sasselov D. =2011ApJ...736L..25K ================================================================================ ADC_Keywords: Planets ; Effective temperatures ; Stars, diameters Keywords: astrobiology - atmospheric effects - Earth - methods: data analysis - planets and satellites: general - stars: individual (Kepler) Abstract: This Letter outlines a simple approach to evaluate habitability of terrestrial planets by assuming different types of planetary atmospheres and using corresponding model calculations. Our approach can be applied for current and future candidates provided by the Kepler mission and other searches. The resulting uncertainties and changes in the number of planetary candidates in the habitability zone (HZ) for the Kepler 2011 February data release are discussed. To first order, the HZ depends on the effective stellar flux distribution in wavelength and time, the planet albedo, and greenhouse gas effects. We provide a simple set of parameters which can be used for evaluating future planet candidates from transit searches. Description: The NASA Kepler mission recently announced 1235 planetary candidates. We use atmospheric models to explore the potential for habitability of Kepler planetary candidates. Tables 1 and 2 and Figures 2 and 3 show the temperature as well as the extent of the habitable zone (HZ) for the Kepler planetary candidates that could potentially be habitable. File Summary: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FileName Lrecl Records Explanations -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ReadMe 80 . This file table1.dat 55 21 Characteristics of the potentially rocky habitable Kepler planetary candidates (KOI, Rpl, Period, Teff, Rstar, Teq) for 0%, 50%, and 100% clouds table2.dat 74 76 The two inner limits and outer limit of the HZ for Kepler planetary candidates in the HZ of their stars for a 0%, 50% and 100% clouds -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- See also: V/133 : Kepler Input Catalog (Kepler Mission Team, 2009) J/other/Nat/486.375 : Stellar parameters of KOI stars (Buchhave+, 2012) J/ApJ/736/19 : Kepler planetary candidates. II. (Borucki+, 2011) J/ApJ/728/117 : Kepler planetary candidates. I. (Borucki+, 2011) J/ApJS/197/8 : Kepler's candidate multiple transiting planets (Lissauer+, 2011) J/A+A/536/L9 : Detections of transit variations in KOI 806 (Tingley+, 2011) J/ApJ/716/1336 : Stability analysis of single-planet (Kopparapu+, 2010) Byte-by-byte Description of file: table1.dat -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bytes Format Units Label Explanations -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1- 7 F7.2 --- KOI [70.03/1591.01] Kepler identification number 9- 11 F3.1 Rgeo Rpl [0.9/2] Planetary candidate radius; Earth radii 13- 17 F5.3 AU a [0.05/0.46] Planetary candidate orbital distance 19- 22 I4 K Teff [3240/5801] Stellar effective temperature 24- 27 F4.2 Rsun Rstar [0.27/0.9] Stellar radius 29- 31 I3 K T.Kp [243/454] Kepler equilibrium temperature (T_eq_) 33- 35 I3 K T.WL0 [256/471] T_eq_ for water loss and 0% clouds 37- 39 I3 K T.WL50 T_eq_ for water loss and 50% clouds 41- 43 I3 K T.WL100 T_eq_ for water loss and 100% clouds 45- 47 I3 K T.R0 T_eq_ for runaway greenhouse conditions and 0% clouds 49- 51 I3 K T.R50 T_eq_ for runaway greenhouse conditions and 50% clouds 53- 55 I3 K T.R100 T_eq_ for runaway greenhouse conditions and 100% clouds -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Byte-by-byte Description of file: table2.dat -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bytes Format Units Label Explanations -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1- 7 F7.2 --- KOI [51.01/1596.02] Kepler identification number (1) 9- 13 F5.1 --- Rpl [0.9/204.8] Planetary candidate radius; Earth radii 15- 19 F5.3 AU a [0.05/2.235] Planetary candidate orbital distance 21- 24 I4 K Teff [1644/6293] Stellar effective temperature 26- 29 F4.2 Rsun Rstar [0.27/6.16] Stellar radius 31- 34 F4.2 AU HZia0 Inner HZ limit for H_2_0 loss and 0% clouds 36- 39 F4.2 AU HZib0 Inner HZ limit for greenhouse onset and 0% clouds 41- 44 F4.2 AU HZo0 [0.17/3.91] Outer HZ limit for 0% clouds 46- 49 F4.2 AU HZia50 Inner HZ limit for H_2_0 loss and 50% clouds 51- 54 F4.2 AU HZib50 Inner HZ limit for greenhouse onset and 50% clouds 56- 59 F4.2 AU HZo50 [0.19/4.52] Outer HZ limit for 50% clouds 61- 64 F4.2 AU HZia100 Inner HZ limit for H_2_0 loss and 100% clouds 66- 69 F4.2 AU HZib100 Inner HZ limit for greenhouse onset and 100% clouds 71- 74 F4.2 AU HZo100 [0.23/5.49] Outer HZ limit for 100% clouds -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Note (1): Sorted by T_eq_. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- History: From electronic version of the journal ================================================================================ (End) Greg Schwarz [AAS], Emmanuelle Perret [CDS] 04-Jan-2013