Characterizing Exoplanets for Assessing Their Potential Habitability

Abstract The Statistical-likelihood Exoplanetary Habitability Index (SEPHI) serves as a valuable tool for prioritizing targets for further study and identifying potentially habitable environments. In this paper, we present SEPHI 2.0, which incorporates several key improvements: (1) updated methods for estimating exoplanet internal structures and magnetic fields; (2) the inclusion of orbital eccentricity in assessing the potential for liquid water on an exoplanet’s surface; and (3) a new exoplanet mass–radius relationship. SEPHI 2.0 retains its probabilistic framework and combines the different subindexes by selecting the most restrictive one. In SEPHI 2.0, atmospheric retention is consolidated into a single index that incorporates both thermal (Jeans escape) and nonthermal (stellar wind and magnetic effect) processes. Recent advancements in estimating exoplanet internal structures and magnetic fields have been integrated. Additionally, a new empirical exoplanet mass–radius relationship is introduced. All this is incorporated into the SADE code, which uses key data on exoplanets and their host stars to assess habitability and prioritize targets for further study, providing a comprehensive output of an exoplanetary system’s physical characteristics. SADE is available as a free online tool. Notably, this is the first approach to including estimated exoplanet magnetic fields in a habitability index. The SADE software facilitates the identification of potentially habitable exoplanets. Among the 5500+ confirmed exoplanets, only a few—such as Kepler-62f and GJ 514b—achieve SEPHI 2.0 scores close to 1. It is also noticeable that, according to our studies, TRAPPIST-1 f and g are ranked higher than TRAPPIST-1 e in terms of habitability potential.