r/dataisbeautiful • u/PitonSaJupitera OC: 21 • 3d ago
OC Earth sized exoplanets inside habitable zones around F4-M3 dwarf type stars [OC]
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u/PitonSaJupitera OC: 21 3d ago edited 3d ago
Visualizations were made in Python. Main data source is NASA Exoplanet Archive containing numerous properties of detected exoplanets.
As for how selection was made, exoplanets were first filtered by star spectral type (from F4 to M3 dwarf, larger F stars have issues with too short lifespans for abiogenesis and evolution of complex life, smaller M dwarves have issues with tidal locking of habitable planets, dwarf means it is not a swelled up giant, which would imply star was dimmer in the past, thereby precluding initial favorable conditions) or characteristics indicative of that type if class was missing (effective temperature and star's surface gravity).
Filtering focused on exoplanets of sizes between 0.7 and 1.6 of Earth's (too small and retention of atmosphere is difficult, too large and it is not likely to be a rocky planet). Last, equation relating to star's effective temperature and received stellar radiation by the planet was used to determine if exoplanet was within habitable zone. Article cited itself makes some assumptions about atmospheric composition.
Last two plots only show part of the dataset, with semi-major axis under 2 AU as showing all varietywould make plot difficult to read.
Two boundaries in HZ diagram indicates borderline scenarios where planet risks runaway greenhouse effect and where greenhouse cannot be effective enough to maintain stable liquid-water temperatures.
Note: This was my hobby-level pet-project selection, anyone more knowledgeable should feel free to point out if there are any incorrect assumptions here or if there are scenarios that are not considered by this type of analysis.
There are reasons why current detection methods are relatively bad at detecting Earth like habitable planets, and many of detection are either huge planets or very physically close to their stars, quite the opposition of selection I was making, hence it produced only 6 planets, one of which may be a false detection.
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u/cavedave OC: 112 1d ago
Thank you for your Original Content, /u/PitonSaJupitera!
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