Recently in the Habitable Zones & Global Climate Category

Astrophysical observations reveal a large diversity of radii and masses of exoplanets. It is important to characterize the interiors of exoplanets to understand planetary diversity and further determine how unique, or not, Earth is.

Aims. We study the formation and water delivery of planets in the habitable zone (HZ) around solar-type stars. In particular, we study different dynamical environments that are defined by the most massive body in the system.

We investigate the atmospheric dynamics of terrestrial planets in synchronous rotation near the inner edge of the habitable zone of low-mass stars using the Community Atmosphere Model (CAM).

We derive fitting formulae for the quick determination of the existence of S-type and P-type habitable zones in binary systems.

We combine inferred galaxy properties from a semi-analytic galaxy evolution model incorporating dark matter halo merger trees with new estimates of supernova and gamma ray burst rates as a function of metallicity from stellar population synthesis models incorporating binary interactions.

Eccentricity is an important orbital parameter. Understanding its effect on planetary climate and habitability is critical for us to search for a habitable world beyond our solar system.

The oxidation of rocky planet surfaces and atmospheres, which arises from the twin forces of stellar nucleosynthesis and gravitational differentiation, is a universal process of key importance to habitability and exoplanet biosignature detection.

M-dwarfs or red dwarfs are small (0.5-0.1 solar-mass) and cool ( ~3,000 kelvin) stars and are abundant in the universe.

For decades, as astronomers have imagined advanced extraterrestrial civilizations, they categorized such worlds by the amount of energy their inhabitants might conceivably be able to harness and use.

We present a three-species multi-fluid MHD model (H+, H2O+ and e−), endowed with the requisite atmospheric chemistry, that is capable of accurately quantifying the magnitude of water ion losses from exoplanets.