Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Sep 2011
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011ess.....2.1506a&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, ESS meeting #2, #15.06
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
White dwarf stars cool gradually enough that a planet would spend 8 Gyr in the liquid-water habitable zone if it orbited at 0.01 AU, which coincides with twice the Roche limit. If terrestrial-size planets can re-form or migrate inwards to just outside the Roche limit after the red giant phase, they can be detected in edge-on orbits with deep transits that last a couple of minutes each. Such a survey would be biased towards finding Earth-sized and Earth-temperature planets if it targets the nearest white dwarfs with moderate sized ground-based telescopes. The planets would have similar rotation periods to Earth and orbit stars similar in color to the Sun; however, the planets would be tidally-locked and would need to retain or reform an atmosphere after the white dwarf cools. A targeted survey could probe habitable planet frequencies as small as 1%, while the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope could probe even smaller frequencies.
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