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Exoplanet Properties

1 Introduction
How do astronomers learn so much about a planet just by watching how a star wiggles around? I could
lecture a couple of days and explain it, but I am not sure it would really sink in, so instead we will find out
what we can about an exoplanet by following the same steps astronomers take. Here is our basic scenario:
The star HD4308 is a K0 star with an apparent magnitude of 6.54. It is located in the constellation Tucana
at a distance of 21.9 pc. Observations taken from the European Southern Observatory’s 3.6 meter telescope
at La Sillia Observatory with the HARPS eschelle spectrograph over between September 7, 2003 and July
28, 2005 indicate that this star has a slight wobble, most likely due to a planetary companion. The radial
velocity of the star for each observation is shown in figure 1. These data indicate that the orbital period
of the star-planet system is 15.56 days.

Figure 1: Intermediate season of HARPS radial velocities for HD4308. The best fit of the data gives
an orbital period of 15.56 days for the planet (from Udry et al. 2006. “The HARPS search for southern
extra-solar planets V.” Astronomy & Astrophysics 447: 361–367)
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2 Orbital Distance
The first priority is to find the average distance between the star and the planet. We can use a generalization
of Kepler’s law to find this information. This general Kepler’s law states that if two objects, masses MA
and MB are orbiting eachother than their orbital period (P ), measured in years and average distance (a)
between the star and planet, measured in astronomical units, will follow the equation
a3
M A + MB = . (1)
P2
Unfortunately it is at this point where you can get stuck. After all we don’t know the mass of the star
plus the planet yet, and the period is given in days. We can get around these little problems though.

1. Convert the period to years, there are conversion factors in the appendix.

2. Find the mass of HD4308 using its spectral class. A table of properties of Main sequence stars is in
the appendix.

3. Assume that the mass of the planet is negligible compared with the star. Solve for the average distance
(a) between the star and planet using the equation above. We will check that this assumption is
valid later.

Assuming the mass of the planet is small we have found how far apart the star and planet are. Now
we can start to explore some interesting properties.

3 Habitability
If we assume that life on other planets will depend on the presence of liquid water located on the surface of
a planet as it does on Earth, then there is a limited zone around a star that can support life. This zone is
called the habitable zone. Since this depends only on the amount of energy provided by the star, it varies
depending on the spectral class, or mass of the star. Figure 2 shows the range of distances from different
Main sequence stars in which a planet can have liquid surface water.
Exoplanet Properties 3

Figure 2: Habitable zone for Main sequence stars (from NASA’s Kepler mission http://kepler.nasa.
gov/sci/basis/nature.html).

1. What is the range of the habitable zone for the star HD4308? .

2. Is the planet too close to the star to support liquid surface water? within the habitable zone? too
far from the star to support liquid surface water?

Oh well, we still don’t even know what kind of planet it is. Let’s delve deeper.

4 Planetary Mass
Now we are ready to estimate the mass of this planet. We will use the principle of conservation of
momentum. Basically the star and its planet exert constant tugs of equal force on each other. Since the
Exoplanet Properties 4

star is large it is moved at low speeds, but the planet is small, so it gets pulled around at far greater speeds.
This is encapsulated in the equation
M? Mp 2πa
M? v ? = , (2)
M? + Mp P
where M? is the mass of the star, v? is the average speed of the star in its orbit, Mp is the mass of the
planet, a is the average separation between the star and planet, and P is the period of the orbit. It looks
a little complicated, but we will simplify it a little. We will still assume the planet is much less massive
than the star. In that case the equation simplifies to become
2πa
M? v ? = M p . (3)
P
This is more manageable, but we now run into a little complication. In order to find the mass of the planet
(Mp ) we need to know the speed of the star, and we can’t find this exactly.
Unfortunately we can only measure the line of sight speed of the star from Doppler shift. The star
may also be moving in the plane of the sky. In essence we can only measure v? sin i where i is the angle
by which the orbit is inclined relative to the plane of the sky. The inclination, i, is not 0 or we wouldn’t
see the Doppler shift of the star at all, but it lies somewhere between 0 and 90 degrees. If we add the
inclination to our equation we get
2πa
M? [v? sin i] = [Mp sin i] . (4)
P
This means we cannot uniquely find the mass of the planet, but we find Mp sin i which depends on an
inclination which is between 0 and 90 degrees. The equation above, solved for Mp sin i becomes

M? [v? sin i] P
[Mp sin i] = (5)
2πa
1. Find [v? sin i] using the best fit curve in figure 1. v? sin i is just the difference between the maximum
and minimum velocity divided by 2.

2. Convert the average distance between the star and planet (a) to kilometers using the conversion
factor in the appendix.
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3. Convert the orbital period to seconds using the conversion factor in the appendix.

4. Solve for [Mp sin i] using equation 5. Be sure to use the distance in kilometers and orbital period in
seconds you found above. The masses should be in solar masses.

5. If we assume the inclination is 30 degrees, what is the mass of the planet Mp ?

6. Is [Mp sin i] the minimum or maximum mass of the planet?

7. Is the planet much less massive than the star as we have assumed?

5 Surface Properties
Now that you have the mass of your planet, you can learn a lot about it by comparing it to planets in our
Solar System (see the appendix for properties of solar system planets). The first thing we will do is check
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to see if it is terrestrial or jovian. A terrestrial planet could be much like Earth, while a jovian planet is
composed primarily oh hydrogen and helium. We will find this by comparing masses.

1. Convert the mass of the planet to kilograms using a conversion in the appendix.

2. Check the properties of solar system planets. Which planet in our solar system has a mass most like
this planet?

3. Based on the mass, is this planet more likely to be terrestrial or jovian?

4. What is the mass of this planet in Earth masses?

6 Size
Finally we can try to figure out how big the planet is. The best way to measure the size of something is to
observe it directly, but we cannot do that in this case. We will make assumptions about the density in order
to rind the size of the planet. We will assume a terrestrial planet has an average density of 5,000 kg m−3 ,
while a jovian planet has an average density of 1,000 kg m−3 .

1. Use one of the equations in the appendix to find the volume of the planet around HD4308 using the
mass of the planet in kilograms and an assumed density.
Exoplanet Properties 7

2. Assuming the planet is a perfect sphere, what is the radius of this planet in meters?

7 Atmospheric Retention
One way to estimate the surface gravity is to calculate the escape velocity on the surface of a planet. The
escape velocity is the speed you would have to achieve in order to escape from the gravitational influence
of the planet. The higher the escape velocity, the higher the surface gravity and the more energy it takes
to overcome it. Escape velocity depends on both the mass and radius of a planet. The escape velocity
(vesc ) in meters per second is given by the expression
s
2GM
vesc = , (6)
r
where M is the mass of the planet in kilograms, r is the radius of the planet in meters, and G is the
constant 6.7 × 10−11 m3 kg−1 s−2 .
1. Find the escape velocity in meters per second using equation 6.

The atmosphere of a planet can escape if the molecules of gas are moving faster than the escape velocity.
To figure out how fast the molecules are moving you need to know the temperature of the atmosphere.
A planet is heated by its star, and radiates that heat away into space. In thermal equilibrium the rate
of heating by the star is equal to the heat radiated away by the planet. If this is the case, the planet’s
temperature is given by the equation
s
R?
Tp = T? (1 − A)1/4 , (7)
2a
where Tp is the temperature of the planet, T? is the surface temperature of the star, A is the albedo, R?
is the radius of the star, and a is the average distance between the planet and the star.
Exoplanet Properties 8

2. Convert the radius of the K0 star given in the table in the appendix to kilometers using the conversion
factors in the appendix.

3. Based on the planets in our Solar System, pick a reasonable albedo (A) for this new planet. What
does your group choose?

4. Calculate the planet’s temperature using equation 7.

The thermal speed of a molecule at a temperature T is given by the expression

s
2kB T
vth = , (8)
m

where kB is the Boltzmann constant (1.38 × 10−23 m2 kg s−2 K−1 ), m is the mass of the molecule, and vth
is the average thermal speed of the molecules.

5. Use equation 8 above to find the thermal speed for a hydrogen molecule of mass 3.32 × 10−27 kg.
Assume the equilibrium temperature for the planet you found earlier.
Exoplanet Properties 9

6. Is this velocity less than the escape velocity? In other words will hydrogen molecules remain in the
atmosphere of this planet, or escape into space?

8 Summary
Do you think this planet is likely to support life? In the space below indicate why this planet may or may
not support life and if this planet would be a good candidate planet for a robotic exploration mission.
Exoplanet Properties 10

A Main sequence star properties

Class Radius Mass Luminosity Temperature Example
R/R M/M L/L K
O2 16 158 2,000,000 54,000 Sanduleak -71 51
O5 14 58 800,000 46,000 Sanduleak -66 41
B0 5.7 16 16,000 29,000 Phi1 Orionis
B5 3.7 5.4 750 15,200 Pi Andromedae A
A0 2.3 2.6 63 9,600 Vega
A5 1.8 1.9 24 8,700 Beta Pictoris
F0 1.5 1.6 9.0 7,200 Gamma Virginis
F5 1.2 1.35 4.0 6,400 Eta Arietis
G0 1.05 1.08 1.45 6,000 Beta Comae Berenices
G2 1.0 1.0 1.0 5,700 Sun
G5 0.98 0.95 0.70 5,500 Alpha Mensae
K0 0.89 0.83 0.36 5,150 70 Ophiuchi A
K5 0.75 0.62 0.18 4,450 61 Cygni A
M0 0.64 0.47 0.075 3,850 Gliese 185
M5 0.36 0.25 0.013 3,200 EZ Aquarii A
M8 0.15 0.10 0.0008 2,500 Van Biesbroeck’s star

Properties of Main sequence stars (from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_sequence.

B Solar System Data

Planet Radius Mass Mean Density Escape Velocity Albedo
km kg kg m−3 km s−1
Mercury 2,440 3.30 × 1023 5,430 4.2 0.119
Venus 6,052 4.87 × 1024 5,240 10.4 0.75
Earth 6,378 5.97 × 1024 5,520 11.2 0.29
Mars 3,394 6.42 × 1023 3,930 5.0 0.25
Jupiter 71,492 1.90 × 1027 1,330 60 0.343
Saturn 60,268 5.68 × 1026 690 36 0.342
Uranus 25,559 8.68 × 1025 1,270 21 0.300
Neptune 24,766 1.02 × 1026 1,640 24 0.290

Taken from Eric Chaisson & Steve McMillan. Astronomy Today Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice
Hall, 2005 and Wikipedia’s article on Bond Albedo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bond_albedo).

C Conversion Factors
• 1 year = 365.25 days = 3.16 × 107 seconds.

• 1 M = 1.99 × 1030 kg = 1,050 MJupiter = 333,000 MEarth .

• 1 MJupiter = 1.90 × 1027 kg.

• 1 MEarth = 5.98 × 1024 kg.

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• 1 AU = 1.496 × 108 km.

• 1 R = 6.955 × 105 km.

• 1 km = 1000 m.

D Other Equations
• The mass M of an object with volume V and density ρ is given by the expression

M = ρV. (9)

• The volume V of a sphere of radius r is

4
V = πr3 . (10)
3