Determination of habitable zones in extrasolar planetary systems: Where are Gaia's sisters?

Franck, S.; Bloh, Werner von; Bounama, C.; Steffen, M.; Schönberner, D.; Schellnhuber, Hans Joachim

doi:10.1029/1999je001169

Cited by 59 publications

(63 citation statements)

References 27 publications

(10 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Other more general criteria to understand the optimal position of the HZ was proposed by Franck et al (2000aFranck et al ( , 2000b. Based on the global carbon cycle as mediated by life and driven by increasing solar luminosity and plate tectonics, they estimated the biogeophysical domain supporting a photosynthesis-based ecosphere during planetary history and future.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ultraviolet radiation constraints around the circumstellar habitable zones

Buccino

Lemarchand

Mauas

2006

Icarus

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Ultraviolet radiation is known to inhibit photosynthesis, induce DNA destruction and cause damage to a wide variety of proteins and lipids. In particular, UV radiation between 200-300 nm becomes energetically very damaging to most of the terrestrial biological systems. On the other hand, UV radiation is usually considered one of the most important energy source on the primitive Earth for the synthesis of many biochemical compounds and, therefore, essential for several biogenesis processes. In this work, we use these properties of the UV radiation to define the boundaries of an ultraviolet habitable zone. We also analyze the evolution of the UV habitable zone during the main sequence stage of the star.We apply these criteria to study the UV habitable zone for those extrasolar planetary systems that were observed by the International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE). We analyze the possibility that extrasolar planets and moons could be suitable for life, according to the UV constrains presented in this work and other accepted criteria of habitability (liquid water, orbital stability, etc.).

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ultraviolet radiation constraints around the circumstellar habitable zones

Buccino

Lemarchand

Mauas

2006

Icarus

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Jones et al (2005Jones et al ( , 2006 applied this framework to known exoplanetary systems to evaluate the possibility of habitable "Earths". Stellar evolutionary aspects are also relevant to the future of life on Earth, as discussed by, e.g., Sackmann et al (1993) and Schröder & Smith (2008), although the impact of geodynamic processes appears to be dominant for setting the time limit of terrestrial habitability (Franck et al 2000b). Customary simulations about the role of stellar evolution on circumstellar habitability typically invoke the framework of the climatic habitable zone (Kasting et al 1993;Selsis et al 2007).…”

Section: 3mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Note that concerning Earth-mass planets, a detailed study of geodynamic habitability based on the pHZ was previously presented by Franck et al (2000b). They found that Earth will be rendered uninhabitable after 6.5 Gyr as a result of plate tectonics, notably the growth of the continental area (enhanced loss of atmospheric CO 2 by the increased weathering surface) and the dwindling spreading rate (diminishing CO 2 output from the solid Earth).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The study by Franck et al (2000b) implies that there is no merit in investigating the future habitability of Earth during long-term stellar evolution, as in the framework of pHZ models, the lifetime of habitability is limited by terrestrial geodynamic processes. However, this situation is expected to be significantly different for super-Earth planets due to inherent differences compared to Earth-mass planets (e.g., Valencia et al 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Habitability of super-Earth planets around main-sequence stars including red giant branch evolution: models based on the integrated system approach

Cuntz

Bloh

Schröder

et al. 2011

International Journal of Astrobiology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In a previous study published in Astrobiology, we focused on the evolution of habitability of a 10 M ⊕ super-Earth planet orbiting a star akin to the Sun. This study was based on a concept of planetary habitability in accordance to the integrated system approach that describes the photosynthetic biomass production taking into account a variety of climatological, biogeochemical, and geodynamical processes. In the present study, we pursue a significant augmentation of our previous work by considering stars with zero-age main sequence masses between 0.5 and 2.0 M ⊙ with special emphasis on models of 0.8, 0.9, 1.2 and 1.5 M ⊙ . Our models of habitability consider again geodynamical processes during the mainsequence stage of these stars as well as during their red giant branch evolution. Pertaining to the different types of stars, we identify so-called photosynthesissustaining habitable zones (pHZ) determined by the limits of biological productivity on the planetary surface. We obtain various sets of solutions consistent with the principal possibility of life. Considering that stars of relatively high masses depart from the main-sequence much earlier than low-mass stars, it is found that the biospheric life-span of super-Earth planets of stars with masses above approximately 1.5 M ⊙ is always limited by the increase in stellar luminosity. However, for stars with masses below 0.9 M ⊙ , the life-span of super-Earths is solely determined by the geodynamic time-scale. For central star masses between 0.9 and 1.5 M ⊙ , the possibility of life in the framework of our models depends on the relative continental area of the super-Earth planet.-2 -

show abstract

“…Kasting et al (1993) emphasized that the habitability of an exoplanet depends on the properties of the host star. Several authors have considered how a planet's climate and climatic habitability depend on the properties of the planet, as well (Williams & Kasting 1997;Franck et al 2000aFranck et al , 2000bWilliams & Pollard 2002;Gaidos et al 2005;von Bloh et al 2007von Bloh et al , 2008; Selsis et al 2007;Dobrovolskis 2007Dobrovolskis , 2009Spiegel et al 2008Spiegel et al , 2009). In particular, two recent works have focused on the climatic effect of orbital eccentricity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Generalized Milankovitch Cycles and Long-Term Climatic Habitability

Spiegel

Raymond

Dressing

et al. 2010

ApJ

122

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Although Earth's orbit is never far from circular, terrestrial planets around other stars might experience substantial changes in eccentricity. Eccentricity variations could lead to climate changes, including possible "phase transitions" such as the snowball transition (or its opposite). There is evidence that Earth has gone through at least one globally frozen, "snowball" state in the last billion years, which it is thought to have exited after several million years because global ice-cover shut off the carbonate-silicate cycle, thereby allowing greenhouse gases to build up to sufficient concentration to melt the ice. Due to the positive feedback caused by the high albedo of snow and ice, susceptibility to falling into snowball states might be a generic feature of water-rich planets with the capacity to host life. This paper has two main thrusts. First, we revisit one-dimensional energy balance climate models as tools for probing possible climates of exoplanets, investigate the dimensional scaling of such models, and introduce a simple algorithm to treat the melting of the ice layer on a globally frozen planet. We show that if a terrestrial planet undergoes Milankovitch-like oscillations of eccentricity that are of great enough magnitude, it could melt out of a snowball state. Second, we examine the kinds of variations of eccentricity that a terrestrial planet might experience due to the gravitational influence of a giant companion. We show that a giant planet on a sufficiently eccentric orbit can excite extreme eccentricity oscillations in the orbit of a habitable terrestrial planet. More generally, these two results demonstrate that the long-term habitability (and astronomical observables) of a terrestrial planet can depend on the detailed architecture of the planetary system in which it resides.

show abstract

Determination of habitable zones in extrasolar planetary systems: Where are Gaia's sisters?

Cited by 59 publications

References 27 publications

Ultraviolet radiation constraints around the circumstellar habitable zones

Ultraviolet radiation constraints around the circumstellar habitable zones

Habitability of super-Earth planets around main-sequence stars including red giant branch evolution: models based on the integrated system approach

Generalized Milankovitch Cycles and Long-Term Climatic Habitability

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About