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THE SEARCH FOR HABITABLE EARTH-LIKE PLANETS HAS BEEN GREATLY ADVANCED BY THE TRANSITING EXOPLANET SURVEY SATELLITE (TESS). THE MOST RECENT TESS OBJECT OF INTEREST (TOI) TO MAKE HEADLINES TOI 700 D (GILBERT ET AL. 2020 RODRIGUEZ ET AL. 2020) IS A PRIME EXAMPLE OF A TERRESTRIAL PLANET ORBITING WELL WITHIN ITS STAR S HABITABLE ZONE (HZ). WITH THE IMPENDING LAUNCH OF THE JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE (JWST) AND OTHER UPCOMING AND PROPOSED OBSERVATORIES (E.G. E-ELT LUVOIR HABEX) IT IS INCREASINGLY IMPORTANT TO STRATEGICALLY SEARCH FOR SIGNS OF HABITABILITY WITHIN AVAILABLE DATA. DOING SO ENABLES DIFFERENTIATION AND PRIORITIZATION OF THE MYRIAD ED AND CANDIDATE EXOPLANETS FOR FUTURE OBSERVATION. IN MOST OF THE RECENT CASES OF OBSERVATIONS TARGETING EXOPLANETS 3D GENERAL CIRCULATION MODELS (GCMS) ARE USED TO INFER PLANET COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE OR TO PREDICT OBSERVATIONS OF SCIENTIFIC INTEREST. THIS COULD BE USED AS A POWERFUL TOOL FOR PRIORITIZING THE OBSERVATION OF POTENTIALLY HABITABLE EXOPLANETS. HOWEVER PREVIOUS MODELING HAS FOCUSED ON PARAMETER SPACES THAT ARE NOT STATISTICALLY LINKED TO THE OBSERVATIONAL DATA (E.G. DEL GENIO ET AL. 2019A TURBET ET AL. 2016) BECAUSE OF THE COMPUTATIONALLY-INTENSIVE NATURE OF 3D MODELS. ACCURATE STATISTICAL MODELING IS VITAL TO THE ATION OF OTHER HABITABLE WORLDS. TO ADDRESS THE PROBLEM WE WILL CREATE A METHOD TO STATISTICALLY INVESTIGATE THE HABITABILITY OF EXOPLANETS WITH A SUITE OF 1D AND 3D MODELS USING THE GCM ROCKE-3D (WAY ET AL. 2017) INFORMED BY ANALYSIS OF TESS OBSERVATIONS. FURTHERMORE WE WILL APPLY THIS METHOD TO THREE TESS-OBSERVED PLANETS AND CANDIDATES WHICH WERE HIGHLY PRIORITIZED BY OUR PREVIOUS WORK TOIS 256 203 AND 700. THIS WILL CONSTITUTE AN END-TO-END INVESTIGATION OF REAL TESS EXOPLANETS TO CONSTRAIN THE POSSIBILITY OF LIQUID WATER BEING PRESENT AND ASSESS THE ABILITY OF NEXT GENERATION TELESCOPES TO ITS PRESENCE. THIS METHOD WILL BE A MORE EFFICIENT DATA-BASED METHOD FOR ASSESSING THE HABITABILITY OF EXOPLANETS. IN ADDITION THE WORK WILL PROVIDE ESTIMATES FOR THE HABITABILITY OF THREE TESS-OBSERVED PLANETS AND CANDIDATES. THIS WILL GENERATE ROBUST LIMITS FOR FUTURE PLANNED OBSERVATIONS OF THE ATMOSPHERES OF THESE EXOPLANETS FOR UPCOMING AND FUTURE NASA MISSIONS LIKE JWST HELPING TO ANSWER THE QUESTION: IS THERE LIFE BEYOND EARTH? THE WORK IS PRIMARILY RELEVANT TO THE PLANETARY SCIENCE RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS PROGRAM IN THE PLANETARY SCIENCE DIVISION. THOUGH THE OBSERVATIONAL ANALYSIS OF THIS WORK IS RELEVANT TO THE ASTROPHYSICS DIVISION THE BULK OF THIS RESEARCH FOCUSES ON THE MODELING AND DATA ANALYSIS NECESSARY TO CHARACTERIZE EXOPLANET SYSTEMS HABITABILITY. THIS IS ESPECIALLY RESPONSIVE TO THE PLANETARY SCIENCE DIVISION S STATED SCIENCE GOAL TO FIND LOCATIONS WHERE LIFE COULD HAVE EXISTED OR COULD EXIST TODAY.

$83,867FY2020National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA

University Of Arkansas, Fayetteville AR

Investigators

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