Based on numbers of stars, supernova rates, and metallicity, a prior study (Dayal et al. 2015) concluded that large elliptical galaxies contain up to 10,000 times more habitable planets than […]
habitability
Posted inHabitable Zones, Press Release
Study Challenges Common View Of Oxygen Scarcity On Earth 2 Billion Years Ago
Shungite, a unique carbon-rich sedimentary rock from Russia that deposited 2 billion years ago, holds clues about oxygen concentrations on Earth’s surface at that time. Led by Professor Kurt Konhauser […]
Posted inHabitable Zones, Press Release
Earth's Polar Night Boundary Layer As An Analogue For Dark Side Inversions On Synchronously Rotating Terrestrial Exoplanets
A key factor in determining the potential habitability of synchronously rotating planets is the strength of the atmospheric boundary layer inversion between the dark side surface and the free atmosphere. […]
Posted inBiosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Press Release, Proxima Centauri
The UV Surface Habitability of Proxima b: First Experiments Revealing Probable Life Survival To Stellar Flares
We use a new interdisciplinary approach to study the UV surface habitability of Proxima b under quiescent and flaring stellar conditions. We assumed planetary atmospheric compositions based on CO2 and […]
Posted inHabitable Zones, Press Release
Early Earth May Have Been A Water World
New research shows that the early Earth, home to some of our planet’s first lifeforms, may have been a real-life “waterworld”– without a continent in sight. The study, which appears […]
Posted inPress Release, Space Weather & Heliophysics
Wind Morphology Around Cool Evolved Stars In Binaries: The Case Of Slowly Accelerating Oxygen-rich Outflows
The late stellar evolutionary phases of low and intermediate-mass stars are strongly constrained by their mass-loss rates. The wind surrounding cool evolved stars frequently shows non-spherical features, thought to be […]
Posted inHabitable Zones, Press Release
Habitability and Water Loss Limits on Eccentric Planets Orbiting Main Sequence Stars
A planet’s climate can be strongly affected by its orbital eccentricity and obliquity. Here we use a 1-dimensional energy balance model modified to include a simple runaway greenhouse (RGH) parameterization […]
Posted inHabitable Zones, Press Release
Transition From Eyeball To Snowball Driven By Sea-ice Drift On Tidally Locked Terrestrial Planets
Tidally locked terrestrial planets around low-mass stars are the prime targets for future atmospheric characterizations of potentially habitable systems, especially the three nearby ones–Proxima b, TRAPPIST-1e, and LHS 1140b. Previous […]
Posted inHabitable Zones, Press Release
Simulations of Water Vapor and Clouds on Rapidly Rotating and Tidally Locked Planets: a 3D Model Intercomparison
Robustly modeling the inner edge of the habitable zone is essential for determining the most promising potentially habitable exoplanets for atmospheric characterization. Global climate models (GCMs) have become the standard […]
Posted inAstrogeology, Press Release
Would A Deep-Earth Water Cycle Change Our Understanding Of Planetary Evolution?
Every school child learns about the water cycle–evaporation, condensation, precipitation, and collection. But what if there were a deep Earth component of this process happening on geologic timescales that makes […]