Implications of Tides for Life on Exoplanets
As evident from the nearby examples of Proxima Centauri and TRAPPIST-1, Earth-sized planets in the habitable zone of low-mass stars are common. Here, we focus on such planetary systems and argue that their (oceanic) tides could be more prominent due to stronger tidal forces.
We identify the conditions under which tides may exert a significant positive influence on biotic processes – abiogenesis, biological rhythms and stimulating photosynthesis.
We conclude our analysis by identifying large-scale algal blooms as potential temporal biosignatures in reflectance light curves that can arise indirectly as a consequence of strong tidal forces.
Manasvi Lingam, Abraham Loeb
(Submitted on 14 Jul 2017)
Comments: 22 pages; 0 figures
Subjects: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP)
Cite as: arXiv:1707.04594 [astro-ph.EP] (or arXiv:1707.04594v1 [astro-ph.EP] for this version)
Submission history
From: Manasvi Lingam
[v1] Fri, 14 Jul 2017 18:01:07 GMT (31kb)
https://arxiv.org/abs/1707.04594
Astrobiology