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Shravya(Vya) Raghava

Independent Inquiry, Period 2

Mar 20, 2024

Our Future Home: Exploring the Habitability of Exoplanets like Kepler 569b

Introduction:

The study of exoplanets has long been a prominent space in scientific research, scientists

from all over the world dedicating their time to study the celestial bodies beyond. And with the

environmental changes occurring on the planet Earth, the necessity of such research has only

gotten more and more vital. Climate change has been wreaking havoc on many delicate

ecosystems around the world, and as the ocean levels rise, species are hunted to extinction, and

temperatures steadily increase, we creep closer and closer to the point of no return, the point that

will begin the self-perpetuating cycle that will destroy Earth’s environment. As not a solution,

but a counteraction, the search has begun for a new planet to sustain human life. This research

paper will highlight my involvement in this search, my findings, and its relevance.

One of the large questions wrestled with in the building of this research paper was the

concept of habitability: what makes a planet habitable? Is there a strict set of criteria, a checklist

of sorts to be followed? Research into this topic revealed that while a concrete definition of what

makes a planet able to sustain life did not exist, there was a rough set of criteria that had been

established by previous scientists, like the concept of the “goldilocks zone”(the distance from a

star a planet’s orbit can be located at where it is not too hot, nor too cold for life to exist), and a

list of elements required for the presence of organic life (hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen,

etc.) Using this qualitative information, as well as quantitative information regarding the planet
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derived from a tracking telescope, this paper will provide a detailed description of whether or not

this planet is sustainable for organic life.

Other than a medium to discuss scientific findings, this research paper is also important

in helping establish the future of space travel and astrobiology research. After the successful trips

to the moon, and the sending of many rovers out to other planets like Mars, the missions of many

space travel organizations and companies are turning out towards other planets, and the potential

for life to exist on them.

Observational Methods and Data Analysis

In order to derive mathematical information about the chosen planet—Exoplanet

Kepler-569b—I used a tracking telescope to observe the light curves emitted from Kepler’s

home star before, during, and after Kepler’s transit. The amount of light emitted from a star

usually stays fairly constant even when small objects like comets and space dust pass in front of

it because of the size difference between such space objects and a star. However, when a large

celestial object, like a planet, passes in front of a star, the amount of light emitted is reduced by

an amount proportional to the mass of the planet. This concept—the variation in the amount of

light emitted from a star—is known as light curves. With this knowledge, I set up the telescope at

around midnight for two nights before Kepler’s transit, during Kepler’s transit, and after Kepler’s

transit, and recorded the amount of light emitted during each of those time periods for five hour

intervals. In order to have an independent variable to compare this light emission to, I also

observed Kepler’s star a week before Kepler’s transit to record the amount of light emitted.

Using this information of the amount of light emitted, I used my computer to calculate the mass
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of the planet, and then used that information, along with quantitative data about the star Kepler

orbits around, to calculate the radius and orbital period of Kepler 569-b.

I chose this planet, Kepler 569b, for multiple reasons. It was visible by way of telescope

from my location (about 15 miles outside of the Bay Area) during the October through February

time period, and it was also a relatively new exoplanet. Astronomy and astrobiology are evolving

concepts, and as time has passed and technology has improved, the amount of new exoplanets

being discovered each year has increased exponentially. Some of the exoplanets first discovered

had years worth of research done on them, and for the purposes of this paper, I desired a

somewhat newer exoplanet to study and dissect over the course of this research period.

The process of collecting the data took a bit of trial and error to figure out how to conduct

properly. In the first few trials of data collection, without realizing the importance of gathering

data solely during transit, I used my telescope to track the light emitted whenever I could,

meaning that a lot of the light curves I tracked were emitted when the planet was much too far

from the sun to have any sort of genuine impact on the data. Once I figured the process out,

however, the gathering of data became much quicker and more accurate.

The telescope I used was connected to a laptop that allowed me to visualize the drop in

light emissions once the Kepler passed in front, a drop I have portrayed in this graph:

With this information, I derived the mass, radius, and orbital period of Kepler, the math depicted

here:

(Derived By Me)

Mass Ratio- About 10 times that of Earth’s

Orbital Radius- 0.2 AU

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Orbital Period- 33.8 days

(Numbers Given by NASA)

Mass Ratio- 10.1 times that of Earth’s

Orbital Radius- 0.1981 AU

Orbital Period- 34.2 days

Exoplanet Characteristics: Mass, Radius, and Orbital Parameters:

Based on my calculations, the mass of Kepler 569-b is about 6*10^25kg, and the radius

of Kepler 569-b is 19,721 km. Kepler’s orbital radius is 0.196 AU.

Qualitative Research on Kepler:

The star that Kepler orbits is known as a G-type star, the same type of star as our sun.

These types of stars tend to contain a lot of ionized calcium, and have temperatures between

5200 and 6000 Kelvin. Because of this star’s similarity to the Earth’s sun, it automatically

contains many of the properties necessary for the sustenance of organic life.

Kepler is generally to be known as a “Neptune-like” planet, a phrase that simply dictates

the planet to be a gas-giant. As a result, it is very similar to planets in our own solar system like

Jupiter, Neptune, and Saturn. Like all of these planets, it lacks a physical surface to stand on. The

main elements theoretically present on Kepler 569-b, by ways of comparison to known gas

giants, are hydrogen, helium, and methane.

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A vital theory to consider during my apprehension of whether or not Kepler 569-b would

allow organic life to survive was the theory of the “goldilocks zone.” This zone is an

astronomical and astrobiological concept that refers to the area of a solar system in which

temperatures are not too hot, not too cold, but just right for survival. It’s important to note that

this theory expands beyond the ideas of just temperature, and instead rounds out the idea of

habitability. Where is the zone in which a planet can contain liquid water, and be close enough to

the sun to retain heat, yet not too close for the overpowering radiation from the star to extinguish

hopes of life. Because of the star that Kepler 569-b orbits around’s extreme similarity to the Sun,

the most straightforward way to determine whether or not Kepler 569-b existed in the Goldilocks

Zone was to compare the orbital radii of the two planets and determine whether or not Kepler

569b’s orbit lay between that of Venus and Mars. Given that Earth’s orbital radius is 1.5*10^8

km and Kepler’s is 0.2 AU, and that Venus’s is 0.7 AU and Mars’s is 1.5 AU, it can be concluded

that it is not in the Goldilocks Zone.

Following the idea of the goldilocks zone, it’s also vital for a planet that sustains life to

contain water. On Earth, it has been theorized that liquid water came about due to chemical

reactions between liquid hydrogen and quartz in Earth’s upper mantle, rather than from icy

comets outside of the solar system. This theory, assuming its truth, implies a need for certain

elements to exist within Kepler to allow it to produce liquid water. While Kepler does not have a

currently known presence of quartz, it’s important to note that only a portion of Earth’s water

was created in the upper mantle, and that the rest of it can be credited to icy comets and meteors

from other reaches of space. Therefore, although there is no guarantee of whether or not Kepler

569-b contains the elements required for the natural creation of water, including hydrogen and

oxygen, this does not mean that water does not exist at all. It simply means that the water would
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have to get there by other means. It is worth noting that if this is the case, the amount of water on

Kepler 569-b may not be enough to sustain a population of life as large as that of Earth.

According to scientists, two of the elements vital for the sustenance of life are nitrogen

and carbon, both of them coming together to form the basis of habitable worlds and stable

biospheres. Carbon, often referred to as the element of life, is the basis of organic life chemistry

and perpetrates the greenhouse effect, which keeps planets warm enough for organic life. The

greenhouse effect refers to the way in which carbon molecules trap the heat from stars within the

atmospheres of a planet, and prevent temperatures from getting too cold. Nitrogen is essential for

DNA and RNA proteins within organisms, which is necessary for reproduction of any kind, and

also constitutes the largest part of the atmosphere necessary for organic life. On Earth, the

element nitrogen makes up 78% of the gases in the atmosphere. Similarly to Earth, nitrogen and

carbon are plentiful throughout outer space, but are unfortunately quite volatile. Traveling mostly

on the bodies of small celestial bodies like comets and meteors, extraterrestrial planets usually

tend to be somewhat depleted of carbon and nitrogen. However, these ratios of carbon to

nitrogen that exist on exoplanets are constantly evolving, indicating that simply because a planet

does not have these elements and the chemical functionality to sustain life does not mean that

they will not in the future. A large way in which these ratios of carbon to nitrogen (also known as

the C/N ratio) evolve is due to gas-enriched and gas-depleted sources in the mantle of a planet.

While there is no official data of what elements exist on Kepler 569-b, due to its

similarities with the planet Neptune, an educated guess of what elements exist on this planet can

be made. Neptune is known for having an atmosphere of primarily hydrogen and helium,

although scientists speculate that the slight presence of nitrogen would not be completely out of

the ordinary. Neptune is known, however, for having an incredibly high concentration of carbon,
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although it is vital to note that this carbon is not exactly similar to the carbon on Earth—this is

liquid carbon. Neptune contains large oceans of liquid carbon, along with much solid carbon in

the form of diamonds. This information regarding the lack of certain necessary elements for life

points in the direction that Kepler 569b may not be habitable.

Alternate Perspectives (Qualitatively):

While making this assessment of whether or not life could exist on Kepler 569-b, it was

vital to consider alternate perspectives for what it means for life to exist. Famed scientists Carl

Sagan and Stephen Hawking once theorized the possibility of life existing on gas giants, even

though the definition of a gas giant existing without a “surface” contradicted current ideas at the

time of what it meant for life to exist somewhere. Hawking and Sagan pushed the idea of

avoiding projecting an “Earth-like” view of life on other areas of the universe. Just because the

life existing on Earth functioned in a certain way and required certain necessities did not mean

that all forms of life would require that, nor did it mean that life could not survive in any other

conditions. The universe was vast and diverse (in terms of landscape), they theorized, and it was

“narrow-minded” to apply an Earth centered mindset when attempting to discourse about a topic

as huge as extraterrestrial life.

Building off of this idea, Sagan and Hawking theorized what it might mean for life to

exist on a gas giant, theories that were particularly potent for this paper because Kepler 569-b is

a gas giant. Due to the lack of solid land and massive presence of gases, they theorized that these

creatures might be flying, and possess balloon-like organic structures. Due to the lack of solid

materials to facilitate complex interactions or tool-making, these creatures would not likely have

intelligence (in the way that it is defined for organic life on Earth). Because of the lack of diverse
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terrain, the ability to camouflage would be crucial, and these creatures would need to adapt to the

new pressures, be able to remain afloat, and potentially control the altitude at which they

remained (maybe through gas bladders or other controls of buoyancy).

Conclusion and Overall Habitability Assessment:

Given all of the explored quantitative and qualitative information dissected earlier in the

paper, a conclusion can be drawn that Kepler 569b is not habitable for life.

This initial conclusion came by way of the numbers derived from the telescope data.

While Kepler 569b’s mass, about ten times that of Earth, does not by itself present a huge issue,

the orbital radius of Kepler 569b does. As mentioned earlier, a concept known as the Goldilocks

Zone theorizes that a planet must exist between the orbital radii of the planets Venus and Mars in

order to sustain life. In this case, however, Kepler’s radius is much smaller than that of Venus,

which suggests that Kepler 569b is much too close to its star than capable for life.

Additionally, the second issue comes from the fact that Kepler 569b’s orbital period is

about the same as the time it takes for Kepler 569b to rotate around itself one time. This concept

is known as tidal locking, and it presents an issue when it comes to sustaining life. Earth’s moon

has this property as well, which is where the orbital period and rotation period are the same, one

side of the celestial body is always facing one direction, and the other side is never facing that

direction. On Kepler 569b, this would mean that one side of the planet was always facing the

star, and the other would never face the star, making one side of the planet extremely hot, and the

other side extremely cold, neither condition being properly suited for life. While there might be a

small strip of area in between with temperatures neither too hot nor cold, this area would be

exceedingly tiny and not realistic for the existence of life.

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Kepler-569b is also a gas giant, devoid of solid land for life to stand on. While there can

be forms of life that exist on gaseous planets, as theorized by Sagan and Hawking, it is still

highly unlikely that life would be able to exist on Kepler 569b.

Although water and increased levels of carbon and nitrogen are things that could be

developed later on, as of right now, the lack of these elements and compounds on Kepler 569b

would make it very difficult for organic, carbon-based life to develop there.

As a result, as of right now, it is highly unlikely that life would be able to exist on Kepler

569b. However, it is worth concluding this paper with a “rebuttal” of sorts that simply

acknowledges the ever changing nature of the universe, and the somewhat probable possibility

that many of these elements could change. Kepler’s orbit, while currently too close to its star for

life to sustain, could potentially change if Kepler was captured by another star system, or if the

mass of its star changed dramatically for any reason. While land is not likely to form given the

current conditions and chemical composition of Kepler 569b, the balance of these elements on

Kepler 569b are subject to change, and billions of years in the future, Kepler could look

completely different.

To conclude, Kepler 569b—given my telescopic research, mathematical calculations, and

qualitative research—is not sustainable for organic life.

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