2017/12/04 by Snehanshu Saha, Saha, Snehanshu, Suryoday Basak +11
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP) #FOS: Physical sciences #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1712.01040
openalex publication_date 2017/12/04 · openalex created_date 2022/10/05 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Seven Earth-sized planets, TRAPPIST-1 system, were discovered in February\n2017. Three of these planets are in the habitable zone (HZ) of their star,\nmaking them potentially habitable planets a mere 40 light years away. Discovery\nof the closest potentially habitable planet to us just a year before --\nProxima~b, and a realization that Earth-type planets in HZ are a common\noccurrence provides the impetus to the pursuit for life outside the Solar\nSystem. The search for life has two goals: Earth similarity and habitability.\nAn index was recently proposed, Cobb-Douglas Habitability Score (CDHS), based\non Cobb-Douglas production function, which computes the habitability score by\nusing measured and estimated planetary parameters like radius, density, escape\nvelocity and surface temperature of a planet. The proposed metric with\nexponents accounting for metric elasticity, is endowed with analytical\nproperties that ensure global optima and can be scaled to accommodate a finite\nnumber of input parameters. We show that the model is elastic, and the\nconditions on elasticity to ensure global maxima can scale as the number of\npredictor parameters increase. K-Nearest Neighbour classification algorithm,\nembellished with probabilistic herding and thresholding restriction, utilizes\nCDHS scores and labels exoplanets to appropriate classes via feature-learning\nmethods. The algorithm works on top of a decision-theoretical model using the\npower of convex optimization and machine learning. A second approach, based on\na novel feature-learning and tree-building method classifies the same planets\nwithout computing the CDHS of the planets and produces a similar outcome. The\nconvergence of the two different approaches indicates the strength of the\nproposed scheme and the likelihood of the potential habitability of the recent\ndiscoveries.\n