91415 astrobiology report 2018 Name: Paul Burgess
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ESS REPORT
What is Trappist 1e:
TRAPPIST-1e, is a solid, roughly earth-sized exoplanet orbiting within the habitable zone around the ultracool dwarf star TRAPPIST-1, about 40 light-years away from Earth. The exoplanet was found via the transit method,where the brightness of a star fluctuates due to the occultation of an exoplanet. TRAPPIST-1e is roughly the same as Earth in respect to its mass, density, gravity, radius, temperature, and stellar flux. How do we know these things? TRAPPIST-1e was found via the transit method, in which the planet blocks a small percentage of the central star’s light. This allowed scientists to define the planet's radius at 0.910 R, with a low uncertainty of 166-172 km. Transit-timing variations (TTV) and computer simulations helped calculate the planet's mass, which was found to be 0.772 M. With both the radius and mass of TRAPPIST-1e, it was possible to accurately calculate the planet's surface gravity, density, and composition. TRAPPIST-1e has a slightly higher density than Earth at 5.65 g/cm3, about 1.024 times …show more content…
The higher density of TRAPPIST-1e implies a very Earth-like composition and a solid rocky surface which gives it 93% of the surface gravity of Earth, and a calculated equilibrium temperature of 246.1 K / −27.1 °C, (with an albedo of 0.7)but is more likely 225 K / −48 °C due to a more earth-like albedo of 0.3.Finding