The Hycean Paradigm in the Search for Life Elsewhere

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• Prof. Nikku Madhusudhan (University of Cambridge)
• Thursday 30 November 2023, 16:00-17:00
• Hoyle Lecture Theatre, Institute of Astronomy.

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The search for life elsewhere is the holy grail of exoplanetary science. The detection of atmospheric signatures of habitable Earth-like exoplanets is challenging due to their small planet-star size contrast and thin atmospheres with high mean molecular weight. A new class of habitable exoplanets, called Hycean worlds, promises to expand and accelerate the search for planetary habitability and life elsewhere. Hycean planets are expected to be temperate ocean-covered worlds with H2-rich atmospheres. Their large sizes and extended atmospheres, compared to rocky planets of the same mass, make Hycean worlds significantly more accessible to atmospheric spectroscopy. Several temperate Sub-Neptunes have been identified in recent studies as candidate Hycean worlds orbiting nearby M dwarfs that make them highly conducive for transmission spectroscopy with JWST . Recently, we reported the first JWST spectrum of a possible Hycean world, K2-18 b, with detections of multiple carbon-bearing molecules in its atmosphere. In this talk, we will present observational constraints on the atmospheric composition of K2-18 b, its atmospheric temperature structure, clouds/hazes, chemical disequilibrium and the possibility of a habitable ocean underneath the atmosphere. We will discuss new observational and theoretical developments in the characterisation of candidate Hycean worlds, and their potential for habitability. Our findings demonstrate the unprecedented potential of JWST for characterising Hycean worlds, and temperate sub-Neptunes in general, and open a new era of atmospheric characterisation of habitable-zone exoplanets with JWST .

This talk is part of the Institute of Astronomy Colloquia series.

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