626 research outputs found
Water Planets in the Habitable Zone: Atmospheric Chemistry, Observable Features, and the case of Kepler-62e and -62f
Planets composed of large quantities of water that reside in the habitable
zone are expected to have distinct geophysics and geochemistry of their
surfaces and atmospheres. We explore these properties motivated by two key
questions: whether such planets could provide habitable conditions and whether
they exhibit discernable spectral features that distinguish a water-planet from
a rocky Earth-like planet. We show that the recently discovered planets
Kepler-62e and -62f are the first viable candidates for habitable zone
water-planet. We use these planets as test cases for discussing those
differences in detail. We generate atmospheric spectral models and find that
potentially habitable water-planets show a distinctive spectral fingerprint in
transit depending on their position in the habitable zone.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, ApJ, 775, L4
UV Surface Environment of Earth-like Planets Orbiting FGKM Stars Through Geological Evolution
The UV environment of a host star affects the photochemistry in the
atmosphere, and ultimately the surface UV environment for terrestrial planets
and therefore the conditions for the origin and evolution of life. We model the
surface UV radiation environment for Earth-sized planets orbiting FGKM stars at
the 1AU equivalent distance for Earth through its geological evolution. We
explore four different types of atmospheres corresponding to an early Earth
atmosphere at 3.9 Gyr ago and three atmospheres covering the rise of oxygen to
present day levels at 2.0 Gyr ago, 0.8 Gyr ago and modern Earth (Following
Kaltenegger et al. 2007). In addition to calculating the UV flux on the surface
of the planet, we model the biologically effective irradiance, using DNA damage
as a proxy for biological damage. We find that a pre-biotic Earth (3.9 Gyr ago)
orbiting an F0V star receives 6 times the biologically effective radiation as
around the early Sun and 3520 times the modern Earth-Sun levels. A pre-biotic
Earth orbiting GJ 581 (M3.5V) receives 300 times less biologically effective
radiation, about 2 times modern Earth-Sun levels. The UV fluxes calculated here
provide a grid of model UV environments during the evolution of an Earth-like
planet orbiting a range of stars. These models can be used as inputs into
photo-biological experiments and for pre-biotic chemistry and early life
evolution experiments.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure
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