Quick search Find article
Quick search
Find article

TIDAL LIMITS TO PLANETARY HABITABILITY

FREE ISSUE

Rory Barnes1,2, Brian Jackson3, Richard Greenberg3 and Sean N. Raymond2,4

Show affiliations


The habitable zones (HZs) of main-sequence stars have traditionally been defined as the range of orbits that intercept the appropriate amount of stellar flux to permit surface water on a planet. Terrestrial exoplanets discovered to orbit M stars in these zones, which are close-in due to decreased stellar luminosity, may also undergo significant tidal heating. Tidal heating may span a wide range for terrestrial exoplanets and may significantly affect conditions near the surface. For example, if heating rates on an exoplanet are near or greater than that on Io (where tides drive volcanism that resurfaces the planet at least every 1 Myr) and produce similar surface conditions, then the development of life seems unlikely. On the other hand, if the tidal heating rate is less than the minimum to initiate plate tectonics, then CO2 may not be recycled through subduction, leading to a runaway greenhouse that sterilizes the planet. These two cases represent potential boundaries to habitability and are presented along with the range of the traditional HZ for main-sequence, low-mass stars. We propose a revised HZ that incorporates both stellar insolation and tidal heating. We apply these criteria to GJ 581 d and find that it is in the traditional HZ, but its tidal heating alone may be insufficient for plate tectonics.


Keywords

astrobiology; planetary systems; stars: individual (GJ 581); stars: low-mass, brown dwarfs


PACS

97.82.Fs Substellar companions; planets

97.82.Jw Infrared excess; debris disks; protoplanetary disks; exo-zodiacal dust

97.10.Xq Luminosity and mass functions

Subjects

Astrophysics and astroparticles

Dates

Issue 1 (2009 July 20)

Received 2009 April 30, accepted for publication 2009 June 8

Published 2009 June 30



Related review articles

What's this?
View review articles related to this research to gain an insight into the key trends in this subject area. Related review articles are selected based on PACS/MSC codes, and are no more than three years old.

  1. The physical properties of extra-solar planets

View by subject




Export








Please login to access our web services, or create an account if you don't yet have one.

You must have cookies enabled in your web browser to be able to login.

Username
Password

Forgotten your password? Get a new one here.