Europlanet Science Congress 2022
Palacio de Congresos de Granada, Spain
18 – 23 September 2022
Europlanet Science Congress 2022
Palacio de Congresos de Granada, Spain
18 September – 23 September 2022
EPSC Abstracts
Vol. 16, EPSC2022-529, 2022
https://doi.org/10.5194/epsc2022-529
Europlanet Science Congress 2022
© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

An update on the SPECULOOS project and new results

Laetitia Delrez1,2 and the SPECULOOS team*
Laetitia Delrez and the SPECULOOS team
  • 1Astrobiology Research Unit, Université de Liège, Liege, Belgium (ldelrez@uliege.be)
  • 2Space Sciences, Technologies and Astrophysics Research (STAR) Institute, Université de Liège, Liege, Belgium
  • *A full list of authors appears at the end of the abstract

In the age of JWST, temperate terrestrial exoplanets transiting nearby late-type M dwarfs provide unique opportunities for characterizing their atmospheres, as well as searching for biosignature gases. In this context, the benchmark TRAPPIST-1 planetary system has garnered the interest of a broad scientific community.

The SPECULOOS (Search for habitable Planets EClipsing ULtra-cOOl Stars) project, an exoplanet transit survey targeting a volume-limited (40 pc) sample of about 1700 late-type (M6 and later) dwarfs using a network of 1m-class robotic telescopes, began its scientific operations three years ago. In this talk, I will present an update on the current status of the survey and an overview of recent results.

In particular, I will describe how an efficient synergy with the TESS mission and other ground-based facilities led to the exciting new discovery of two temperate super-Earths transiting a nearby M6 dwarf, with the outer one orbiting in the habitable zone. In terms of potential for atmospheric characterization, we estimate that this planet is the second-most favorable habitable-zone terrestrial planet found so far after the TRAPPIST-1 planets. The discovery of this remarkable system offers another rare opportunity to study temperate terrestrial planets around our smallest and coolest neighbours.

SPECULOOS team:

Khalid Barkaoui, Artem Burdanov, Adam J. Burgasser, Brice-Olivier Demory, Julien de Wit, Georgina Dransfield, Elsa Ducrot, Lionel J. Garcia, Michaël Gillon, Yilen Gómez Maqueo Chew, Maximilian N. Günther, Matthew J. Hooton, Emmanuël Jehin, James McCormac, Catriona A. Murray, Prajwal Niraula, Peter P. Pedersen, Francisco J. Pozuelos, Didier Queloz, Benjamin V. Rackham, Nicole Schanche, Daniel Sebastian, Sandrine Sohy, Samantha J. Thompson, Mathilde Timmermans, Amaury H.M.J. Triaud, Valérie Van Grootel, Robert D. Wells, Sebastián Zúñiga-Fernández

How to cite: Delrez, L. and the SPECULOOS team: An update on the SPECULOOS project and new results, Europlanet Science Congress 2022, Granada, Spain, 18–23 Sep 2022, EPSC2022-529, https://doi.org/10.5194/epsc2022-529, 2022.

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