English (United Kingdom)

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/featured_content/oa?rat=en

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/highlighted_journal/

Global: Zendy Plus annual

Presents the access of premium content as premium feature

Premium Content

Presents the keyphrase highlighting as premium feature

Keyphrase Highlighting

Presents the summarisation as premium feature

Summarisation

Insights

Presents the pdf analysis as premium feature

PDF Analysis

Presents the zaia usage as premium feature

ZAIA

Global: Zendy Tools annual

Global: Zendy Free Plan

Global: Zendy Tools monthly

Global: Zendy Plus monthly

The upcoming launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) means that wewill soon have the capability to characterize the atmospheres of rockyexoplanets. However, it is still unknown whether such planets orbiting close toM dwarf stars can retain their atmospheres, or whether high-energy irradiationfrom the star will strip the gaseous envelopes from these objects. We present anew method to detect an atmosphere on a synchronously rotating rocky exoplanetaround a K/M dwarf, by using thermal emission during secondary eclipse to infera high dayside albedo that could only be explained by bright clouds. Based oncalculations for plausible surface conditions, we conclude that a high albedocould be unambiguously interpreted as a signal of an atmosphere for planetswith substellar temperatures of $T_{sub}=$ 410-1250 K. This range correspondsto equilibrium temperatures of $T_{eq}=$ 300-880 K. We compare the inferredalbedos of eight possible planet surface compositions to cloud albedocalculations. We determine that a layer of clouds with optical depths greaterthan $\tau=0.5$-$7$, would have high enough albedos to be distinguishable froma bare rock surface. This method of detecting an atmosphere on a rocky planetis complementary to existing methods for detecting atmospheres, because itprovides a way to detect atmospheres with pressures below 1 bar (e.g. Mars),which are too tenuous to transport significant heat but thick enough to hosthigh-albedo clouds.

Identifying Atmospheres on Rocky Exoplanets Through Inferred High Albedo