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The Compositional Diversity of Small Planets Orbiting Low-Mass Stars
The Compositional Diversity of Small Planets Orbiting Low-Mass Stars
상세정보
- 자료유형
- 학위논문 서양
- 최종처리일시
- 20260202104756
- ISBN
- 9798290651545
- DDC
- 600
- 서명/저자
- The Compositional Diversity of Small Planets Orbiting Low-Mass Stars
- 발행사항
- [Sl] : California Institute of Technology, 2025
- 발행사항
- Ann Arbor : ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, 2025
- 형태사항
- 199 p
- 주기사항
- Source: Dissertations Abstracts International, Volume: 87-04, Section: B.
- 주기사항
- Advisor: Knutson, Heather.
- 학위논문주기
- Thesis (Ph.D.)--California Institute of Technology, 2025.
- 초록/해제
- 요약The Kepler and TESS missions have discovered thousands of exoplanets on close-in orbits. The most common planets discovered by these missions are between the size of Earth and Neptune, yet we have no examples of these planets in our solar system. Kepler revealed that these planets exhibit a bimodal radius distribution with peaks above and below approximately 1.8 Earth radii, suggesting distinct formation pathways or evolutionary histories that are not yet completely understood. Planets above and below this "radius valley" are commonly interpreted as planets with and without primordial hydrogen-rich atmospheres. The favorable planet-to-star size ratios of M dwarf stars offer exceptional opportunities to characterize these small planets. However, small planets around M dwarfs may have fundamentally different properties than those around Sun-like stars, including more water-rich compositions and higher atmospheric mass loss rates. We can shed light on the nature of these small M dwarf planets by measuring their masses, radii, and bulk compositions.This thesis presents results from the first systematic transit timing variation (TTV) survey of TESS-discovered M dwarf planets. Systems with multiple planets on near-resonant orbits experience gravitational perturbations that produce TTVs. For faint or active M dwarf stars, TTVs are sometimes the only method capable of measuring masses for sub-Neptune-sized planets. However, the precision of the TTVs measured by TESS is often not sufficient for this purpose, and high-precision follow-up is required in order to obtain dynamical mass measurements. To enable the studies described below, I conducted an international ground-based observing campaign to collect more more than 80 transits of near-resonant M dwarf planets from the Hale telescope at Palomar Observatory, which served as the backbone of this survey, and regularly achieved transit timing precisions an order of magnitude better than TESS. I also collected over 20 transits from the Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network (LCOGT), and dozens of additional TTV observations from collaborators at other observatories. In this thesis, I present the results from 4 key systems observed by this survey. For each of these systems, I leveraged precise ground-based transit observations to provide improved measurements of the masses, densities, and corresponding bulk compositions of the near-resonant planet pairs.In the first study, I analyzed the Kepler-289 system, which contains two inner subNeptune sized planets and an outer gas giant near the 1:2:4 resonance chain. I combined Kepler photometry with new Palomar observations to extend the TTV baseline by 7.5 years and improve the mass constraints by more than a factor of two for all planets. I found that the inner planets have low densities requiring hydrogenrich envelopes, while the outer gas giant contains approximately 30 Earth masses of heavy elements. By comparing the planets' current locations to the mass budget available in the inner protoplanetary disk, I placed a lower limit on the formation location of the outer gas giant beyond 3 au, well beyond its present-day location.In the second study, I analyzed the TOI-1266 system, which contains two subNeptune-sized planets with a rare inverted architecture where the interior planet is larger than its exterior companion. I combined TESS photometry, ground-based transit observations, and radial velocity (RV) measurements in a joint TTV+RV dynamical model. My combined fit revealed that the inner planet likely has a nonzero eccentricity, suggesting that it may have an inflated hydrogen-rich envelope powered by tidal heating. Interior structure modeling indicates that the outer planet could host a water-rich envelope, and both planets are excellent candidates for atmospheric characterization with JWST.In the third study, I characterized the LP 791-18 system, which contains three planets with radii equal to 1.2, 1.0, and 2.5 times that of the Earth. I used new high-precision transit observations to improve the mass and eccentricity measurements for the Earth-sized planet LP 791-18 d. I confirmed with dynamical modeling that LP 791- 18 d may have a non-zero eccentricity forced by gravitational interactions with its larger neighbor, potentially resulting in significant tidal heating and volcanic activity. Contrary to a previous analysis, I showed that if LP 791-18 d has an Earth-like tidal dissipation efficiency, then the TTV observations are not sensitive to this forced eccentricity. I made predictions for the timing of upcoming JWST secondary eclipse observations that could reveal the planet's unknown tidal dissipation efficiency and potentially detect a volcanically outgassed atmosphere.In the fourth study, I confirmed a new Earth-sized planet in the binary M dwarf system TOI-2267, which has a projected separation of just 8 au. If this planet orbits the secondary star it may be large enough to host a volatile-rich envelope, making it a valuable target for studying atmospheric mass loss around active M dwarfs. The new planet's orbital period is extremely close to the other two confirmed planets in this system. I used dynamical modeling to show that either this new planet orbits a different star than the other two, or it must be located in an extremely high 8:9 first-order resonance with planet b. This can be tested with TTV observations, and if confirmed would make this the most compact exoplanet system discovered to date.
- 일반주제명
- Hydrogen
- 일반주제명
- Dwarf stars
- 일반주제명
- Astronomy
- 기타저자
- California Institute of Technology Geological and Planetary Sciences
- 기본자료저록
- Dissertations Abstracts International. 87-04B.
- 전자적 위치 및 접속
- 로그인 후 원문을 볼 수 있습니다.
MARC
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■020 ▼a9798290651545
■035 ▼a(MiAaPQ)AAI32151387
■035 ▼a(MiAaPQ)Caltech17373
■040 ▼aMiAaPQ▼cMiAaPQ
■0820 ▼a600
■1001 ▼aGreklek-McKeon, Michael C.
■24510▼aThe Compositional Diversity of Small Planets Orbiting Low-Mass Stars
■260 ▼a[Sl]▼bCalifornia Institute of Technology▼c2025
■260 1▼aAnn Arbor▼bProQuest Dissertations & Theses▼c2025
■300 ▼a199 p
■500 ▼aSource: Dissertations Abstracts International, Volume: 87-04, Section: B.
■500 ▼aAdvisor: Knutson, Heather.
■5021 ▼aThesis (Ph.D.)--California Institute of Technology, 2025.
■520 ▼aThe Kepler and TESS missions have discovered thousands of exoplanets on close-in orbits. The most common planets discovered by these missions are between the size of Earth and Neptune, yet we have no examples of these planets in our solar system. Kepler revealed that these planets exhibit a bimodal radius distribution with peaks above and below approximately 1.8 Earth radii, suggesting distinct formation pathways or evolutionary histories that are not yet completely understood. Planets above and below this "radius valley" are commonly interpreted as planets with and without primordial hydrogen-rich atmospheres. The favorable planet-to-star size ratios of M dwarf stars offer exceptional opportunities to characterize these small planets. However, small planets around M dwarfs may have fundamentally different properties than those around Sun-like stars, including more water-rich compositions and higher atmospheric mass loss rates. We can shed light on the nature of these small M dwarf planets by measuring their masses, radii, and bulk compositions.This thesis presents results from the first systematic transit timing variation (TTV) survey of TESS-discovered M dwarf planets. Systems with multiple planets on near-resonant orbits experience gravitational perturbations that produce TTVs. For faint or active M dwarf stars, TTVs are sometimes the only method capable of measuring masses for sub-Neptune-sized planets. However, the precision of the TTVs measured by TESS is often not sufficient for this purpose, and high-precision follow-up is required in order to obtain dynamical mass measurements. To enable the studies described below, I conducted an international ground-based observing campaign to collect more more than 80 transits of near-resonant M dwarf planets from the Hale telescope at Palomar Observatory, which served as the backbone of this survey, and regularly achieved transit timing precisions an order of magnitude better than TESS. I also collected over 20 transits from the Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network (LCOGT), and dozens of additional TTV observations from collaborators at other observatories. In this thesis, I present the results from 4 key systems observed by this survey. For each of these systems, I leveraged precise ground-based transit observations to provide improved measurements of the masses, densities, and corresponding bulk compositions of the near-resonant planet pairs.In the first study, I analyzed the Kepler-289 system, which contains two inner subNeptune sized planets and an outer gas giant near the 1:2:4 resonance chain. I combined Kepler photometry with new Palomar observations to extend the TTV baseline by 7.5 years and improve the mass constraints by more than a factor of two for all planets. I found that the inner planets have low densities requiring hydrogenrich envelopes, while the outer gas giant contains approximately 30 Earth masses of heavy elements. By comparing the planets' current locations to the mass budget available in the inner protoplanetary disk, I placed a lower limit on the formation location of the outer gas giant beyond 3 au, well beyond its present-day location.In the second study, I analyzed the TOI-1266 system, which contains two subNeptune-sized planets with a rare inverted architecture where the interior planet is larger than its exterior companion. I combined TESS photometry, ground-based transit observations, and radial velocity (RV) measurements in a joint TTV+RV dynamical model. My combined fit revealed that the inner planet likely has a nonzero eccentricity, suggesting that it may have an inflated hydrogen-rich envelope powered by tidal heating. Interior structure modeling indicates that the outer planet could host a water-rich envelope, and both planets are excellent candidates for atmospheric characterization with JWST.In the third study, I characterized the LP 791-18 system, which contains three planets with radii equal to 1.2, 1.0, and 2.5 times that of the Earth. I used new high-precision transit observations to improve the mass and eccentricity measurements for the Earth-sized planet LP 791-18 d. I confirmed with dynamical modeling that LP 791- 18 d may have a non-zero eccentricity forced by gravitational interactions with its larger neighbor, potentially resulting in significant tidal heating and volcanic activity. Contrary to a previous analysis, I showed that if LP 791-18 d has an Earth-like tidal dissipation efficiency, then the TTV observations are not sensitive to this forced eccentricity. I made predictions for the timing of upcoming JWST secondary eclipse observations that could reveal the planet's unknown tidal dissipation efficiency and potentially detect a volcanically outgassed atmosphere.In the fourth study, I confirmed a new Earth-sized planet in the binary M dwarf system TOI-2267, which has a projected separation of just 8 au. If this planet orbits the secondary star it may be large enough to host a volatile-rich envelope, making it a valuable target for studying atmospheric mass loss around active M dwarfs. The new planet's orbital period is extremely close to the other two confirmed planets in this system. I used dynamical modeling to show that either this new planet orbits a different star than the other two, or it must be located in an extremely high 8:9 first-order resonance with planet b. This can be tested with TTV observations, and if confirmed would make this the most compact exoplanet system discovered to date.
■590 ▼aSchool code: 0037.
■650 4▼aHydrogen
■650 4▼aDwarf stars
■650 4▼aAstronomy
■690 ▼a0606
■71020▼aCalifornia Institute of Technology▼bGeological and Planetary Sciences.
■7730 ▼tDissertations Abstracts International▼g87-04B.
■790 ▼a0037
■791 ▼aPh.D.
■792 ▼a2025
■793 ▼aEnglish
■85640▼uhttp://www.riss.kr/pdu/ddodLink.do?id=T17358820▼nKERIS▼z이 자료의 원문은 한국교육학술정보원에서 제공합니다.


