Back in March 4, I sent an email to the head of the HWC, Prof. Abel Méndez, asking for some clarifications (and since I did so, I could not resist asking for his opinion about the number of expected additions); it took some time, but he has just replied (my questions in numbered text, emphasis at the end mine):
Hi Christos, sorry for the late replay but here are the answers to your questions. Thanks for the interest. Best, -Abel.
1. I have noticed that the 2 worlds added to the lists in the last update (Feb 1) were exoplanets confirmed in 2023 (namely TOI-715 b and GJ 367 d). Should we expect that new entries in 2024, if any, will be only such new exoplanets, confirmed in 2023-2024? Or it could be the case that new measurements about older discoveries could allow an exoplanet confirmed in previous years (2022 or before) to be added to the lists in 2024?
Planets not included in the previous updates are marked as new, usually within the last year. It’s is possible that a planet from 2022 or earlier is added to the catalog if that planet was initially unconfirmed and now is confirmed.
2. Should we expect the lists to be updated regularly (e.g. monthly or so) even if there are no new additions? Or only when new entries are added to the lists?
The catalog is updated irregularly as new results are available. Some updates are only on the data analysis and not necessarily on new planets. For example, we plan to update in late May the mass-radius relationship model based on this paper.
3. What is the primary bottleneck in the process of enriching the lists? Lack of exoplanets with adequate/accurate data to decide potential habitability, limited people & resources in the project, or possibly both?
Although exoplanets are discovered every week, those potentially habitable worlds are taking months. The catalog is very automate today. I just type “hwc” in an IDL prompt and it downloads and analyze all current data. If there is something interesting, then the web is also updated.
4. On a predictive/speculative basis, do you expect that we will have at least 5 new additions to the lists in 2024, as it seems to be the case for 2022 and 2023, or not?
New detections strongly depend on new missions, and after Kepler, were are in slow time. Of course, TESS is helping as the ground observatories. I guess 5 to 10 new additions this year.
Hi @ctsats, thank you very much for writing this email and for sharing reply with all of us. This is very helpful, and your questions were excellent. I wonder if it would be possible to get some previous versions of the dataset from the past years. If I am correct, 7 exoplanets were added to the catalog this year (at least the website was updated only in early January to add additions discovered in 2023 and one from 2015), but Prof. Abel Méndez seems to count some of these additions as from last year - otherwise we would get reply 7 to 10, right? The reason for that might be that the catalog was, in fact, updated earlier but publication on the website was made in January. I think for the purpose of the resolution only the date of the publication on the website should count, but maybe this should be clarified, since the catalog is a database which exists separately from the website and is only published on the website. I will ask the team for clarification of this as well.
I asked for clarification about this as well (because of the message size limit I had to submiot my previous clarification request in two parts, and this was the third). I wrote: as catalog is a database existing outside of the website and updates to the website may be delayed is the publication to website the only criterion for the resolution? In theory, the catalog could be published to the website a few days after the resolution deadline, but listing a new exoplanet as potentially habitable with last update date suggesting it was in fact updated internally within the timeframe specified by the question.
I submitted a clarification request on what might happen if planets are removed as a result of the model updates in May. The way the question is worded, I expect only new planets to count, as opposed to hitting 74 total. If that assumption is correct, I’m anticipating coming up, as I would think a model change might include previously excluded planets, as well as excludes previously included ones.
Back in March 4, I sent an email to the head of the HWC, Prof. Abel Méndez, asking for some clarifications (and since I did so, I could not resist asking for his opinion about the number of expected additions); it took some time, but he has just replied (my questions in numbered text, emphasis at the end mine):
If that assumption is correct, I’m anticipating coming up, as I would think a model change might include previously excluded planets, as well as excludes previously included ones.