Cool Stars 14 - Submitted Abstract # 392
This version created on 13 October 2006

Life on the Dark Side:  Tidally Locked Planets


Sara Seager, Carnegie Institution of Washington

The potential to detect habitable exoplanets in the very near
future is real:  super-Earths in short-period orbits around M
stars. We discuss how to identify  planetary bulk composition
from exoplanet mass and radius measurements. The  bulk interior
composition of super-Earths is directly related to their
surface  and atmosphere conditions---and hence the possibility
for life. Life on  super-Earths is as yet an unaddressed
question. We describe our investigation  of signs of life on hot
super-Earths, based on possible metabolic byproducts. 

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