Abstract
Abstract The James Webb Space Telescope will be able to probe the atmospheres and surface properties of hot, terrestrial planets via emission spectroscopy. We identify 18 potentially terrestrial planet candidates detected by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) that would make ideal targets for these observations. These planet candidates cover a broad range of planet radii (R p ∼ 0.6–2.0R ⊕) and orbit stars of various magnitudes (K s = 5.78–10.78, V = 8.4–15.69) and effective temperatures (T eff ∼ 3000–6000 K). We use ground-based observations collected through the TESS Follow-up Observing Program (TFOP) and two vetting tools—DAVE and TRICERATOPS—to assess the reliabilities of these candidates as planets. We validate 13 planets: TOI-206 b, TOI-500 b, TOI-544 b, TOI-833 b, TOI-1075 b, TOI-1411 b, TOI-1442 b, TOI-1693 b, TOI-1860 b, TOI-2260 b, TOI-2411 b, TOI-2427 b, and TOI-2445 b. Seven of these planets (TOI-206 b, TOI-500 b, TOI-1075 b, TOI-1442 b, TOI-2260 b, TOI-2411 b, and TOI-2445 b) are ultra-short-period planets. TOI-1860 is the youngest (133 ± 26 Myr) solar twin with a known planet to date. TOI-2260 is a young (321 ± 96 Myr) G dwarf that is among the most metal-rich ([Fe/H] = 0.22 ± 0.06 dex) stars to host an ultra-short-period planet. With an estimated equilibrium temperature of ∼2600 K, TOI-2260 b is also the fourth hottest known planet with R p < 2 R ⊕.
Highlights
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will be able to probe the atmospheres and surface properties of hot, terrestrial planets via emission spectroscopy
Terrestrial planets with orbital periods shorter than 30 days are known to have maximum radii between 1.5 and 2.0 R⊕ (e.g., Rogers 2015; Buchhave et al 2016). Another notable discovery resulting from these surveys is the distinct gap in occurrence rate between planets with Rp < 1.5 R⊕ and planets with Rp > 2.0 R⊕ (Fulton et al 2017; Fulton & Petigura 2018), with the former regime corresponding to planets with terrestrial compositions and the latter regime corresponding to planets with volatile-rich gaseous envelopes
Follow-up observations are used to search for evidence of false positives (FPs) outside of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) data, while DAVE and TRICERATOPS are used to search for FP signatures within the TESS data
Summary
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will be able to probe the atmospheres and surface properties of hot, terrestrial planets via emission spectroscopy. For most of the known terrestrial planets, detecting atmospheric absorption features in transmission spectra would be extremely challenging (the exception being those orbiting ultracool dwarfs and white dwarfs; Lustig-Yaeger et al 2019; Kaltenegger et al 2020), but many of these planets would make excellent targets for thermal emission measurements With these observations, one can infer the presence or lack of atmospheres surrounding short-period terrestrial planets (Koll et al 2019; Lustig-Yaeger et al 2019; Mansfield et al 2019). This SiO absorption is expected to vary based on the types of rocks being vaporized (e.g., basaltic versus feldspathic versus ultramafic), and can reveal information about surface composition
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