High-resolution Spectra and Biosignatures of Earth-like Planets Transiting White Dwarfs

Abstract

With the first observations of debris disks as well as proposed planets around white dwarfs, the question of how rocky planets around such stellar remnants can be characterized and probed for signs of life becomes tangible. White dwarfs are similar in size to Earth and have relatively stable environments for billions of years after initial cooling, making them intriguing targets for exoplanet searches and terrestrial planet atmospheric characterization. Their small size and the resulting large planet transit signal allows observations with next generation telescopes to probe the atmosphere of such rocky planets, if they exist. We model high-resolution transmission spectra for planets orbiting white dwarfs from as they cool from 6,000-4,000 K, for i) planets receiving equivalent irradiation to modern Earth, and ii) planets orbiting at the distance around a cooling white dwarf which allows for the longest continuous time in the habitable zone. All high-resolution transmission spectra will be publicly available online upon publication of this study and can be used as a tool to prepare and interpret upcoming observations with JWST, the Extremely Large Telescopes as well as mission concepts like Origins, HabEx, and LUVOIR.

10 pages, 1 table, 4 figures; accepted to ApJL

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Cited by in corpus (13)

• The White Dwarf Opportunity: Robust Detections of Molecules in Earth-like Exoplanet Atmospheres with the James Webb Space Telescope
• Extending the Breakthrough Listen nearby star survey to other stellar objects in the field
• A New Method for Finding Nearby White Dwarf Exoplanets and Detecting Biosignatures
• Photochemical Runaway in Exoplanet Atmospheres: Implications for Biosignatures
• Atmosphere Models of Brown Dwarfs Irradiated by White Dwarfs: Analogues for Hot and Ultra-Hot Jupiters
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• Gemini/GMOS Transmission Spectroscopy of the Grazing Planet Candidate WD 1856+534 b
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• Which Stars can see Earth as a Transiting Exoplanet?
• Potential for life to exist and be detected on Earth-like planets orbiting white dwarfs
• Planetary magnetosphere evolution around post-main-sequence stars