Interior Structures and Tidal Heating in the TRAPPIST-1 Planets

Understand

With seven planets, the TRAPPIST-1 system has the largest number of exoplanets discovered in a single system so far.

• The system is of astrobiological interest, because three of its planets orbit in the habitable zone of the ultracool M dwarf.
• Assuming the planets are composed of non-compressible iron, rock, and H$_2$O, we determine possible interior structures for each planet.
• To determine how much tidal heat may be dissipated within each planet, we construct a tidal heat generation model using a single uniform viscosity and rigidity for each planet based on the planet's composition.