Determination of the potential habitability of super-Earths

One of the most fundamental questions of science remains the existence of any lifeform beyond the Earth. The numerous detections of exoplanets since the discovery of 51 Pegasi b in 1995 has deeply increased the credibility of the research on habitable worlds in our Galaxy. As such, the diversity of the exoplanet populations, ranging from low-mass planets such as super-Earths and sub-Neptunes to high-mass planets such as Neptune-like/sub-Neptune planets and hot Jupiters has improved our understanding of planetary systems, in particular planet formation theory. Consequently, there is a wide range of planetary systems architectures, all drastically different from the Solar System configuration, emphasizing the uniqueness of our planetary system. The discovery of super-Earths, exoplanets with masses and sizes greater than Earth's but significantly lower than that of Uranus and Neptune, has opened new perspectives for searching planetary habitability beyond our Solar System. Through a comprehensive review of exoplanetology literature, this thesis investigates the potential for super-Earths to harbor habitable surface conditions by identifying fundamental parameters, as represented in the “planets are hard” diagram from Meadows & Barnes (2018), published in Springer Nature. This diagram includes planetary properties such as internal structure and atmospheric composition; planetary system architecture; and stellar activity effects on long-term habitability. Therefore, after a synthetic view of theoretical frameworks of the current literature of exoplanetary research, including detection methods and exoplanet populations, this work aims to provide a global understanding of the conditions leading to habitability on super-Earths’ surface, expanding our knowledge of both astrobiology and exoplanetology fields. Ultimately, this compilatory thesis explores the Nasa Exoplanet Archive database to estimate the number of super-Earths that could be considered potentially habitable.