A Potential Super-Venus in the Kepler-69 System
Abstract
Transiting planets have greatly expanded and diversified the exoplanet field. These planets provide greater access to characterization of exoplanet atmospheres and structure. The Kepler mission has been particularly successful in expanding the exoplanet inventory, even to planets smaller than the Earth. The orbital period sensitivity of the Kepler data is now extending into the habitable zones of their host stars, and several planets larger than the Earth have been found to lie therein. Here we examine one such proposed planet, Kepler-69c. We provide new orbital parameters for this planet and an in-depth analysis of the habitable zone. We find that, even under optimistic conditions, this 1.7 R_⊕ planet is unlikely to be within the habitable zone of Kepler-69. Furthermore, the planet receives an incident flux of 1.91 times the solar constant, which is similar to that received by Venus. We thus suggest that this planet is likely a super-Venus rather than a super-Earth in terms of atmospheric properties and habitability, and we propose follow-up observations to disentangle the ambiguity.
Additional Information
© 2013 American Astronomical Society. Received 2013 April 29; accepted 2013 May 8; published 2013 May 30. The authors would like to thank David Ciardi, Lauren Weiss, and the anonymous referee for productive feedback. This work has made use of the Habitable Zone Gallery at hzgallery.org.Attached Files
Published - 2041-8205_770_2_L20.pdf
Submitted - 1305.2933v1.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 39851
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20130812-073827665
- Created
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2013-08-12Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-09Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC)