An Earth-sized Planet in the Habitable Zone of a Cool Star

Elisa V. Quintana , Thomas Barclay , Sean N. Raymond (1) , Jason F. Rowe , Emeline Bolmont (1) , Douglas A. Caldwell , Steve B. Howell , Stephen R. Kane , Daniel Huber (2) , Justin R. Crepp , Jack J. Lissauer , David R. Ciardi , Jeffrey L. Coughlin , Mark E. Everett , Christopher E. Henze , Elliott Horch , Howard Isaacson , Eric B. Ford , Fred C. Adams , Martin Still , Roger C. Hunter , Billy Quarles , Franck Selsis (1)

1 SSE 2014
2 SIfA - Sydney Institute for Astronomy

The quest for Earth-like planets represents a major focus of current exoplanet research. While planets that are Earth-sized and smaller have been detected, these planets reside in orbits that are too close to their host star to allow liquid water on their surface. We present the detection of Kepler-186f, a 1.11+\-0.14 Earth radius planet that is the outermost of five planets - all roughly Earth-sized - that transit a 0.47+\-0.05 Rsun star. The intensity and spectrum of the star's radiation places Kepler-186f in the stellar habitable zone, implying that if Kepler-186f has an Earth-like atmosphere and H2O at its surface, then some of this H2O is likely to be in liquid form.

Mots clés: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics; Astrophysics

Domaines: Planétologie et astrophysique de la terre [astro-ph.EP]

Elisa V. Quintana, Thomas Barclay, Sean N. Raymond, Jason F. Rowe, Emeline Bolmont, et al.. An Earth-sized Planet in the Habitable Zone of a Cool Star. Science, 2014, 344 (6181), pp.277-280. ⟨10.1126/science.1249403⟩. ⟨hal-00982800⟩