Related papers: Life on a tidally-locked planet
Close-in planets undergo strong tidal interactions with the parent star that modify their spins and orbits. In the two-body problem, the final stage for tidal evolution is the synchronisation of the rotation and orbital periods, and the…
In the past 15 years, astronomers have revealed that a significant fraction of the stars should harbor planets and that it is likely that terrestrial planets are abundant in our galaxy. Among these planets, how many are habitable, i.e.…
Recent discoveries of several transiting planets with clearly non-zero eccentricities and some large inclinations started changing the simple picture of close-in planets having circular and well-aligned orbits. Two major scenarios to form…
Tidal interactions between planets or stars and the bodies that orbit them dissipate energy in their interiors. The energy dissipated drives internal heating and a fraction of that energy will be released as seismic energy. Here we…
Since twenty years, a large population of close-in planets orbiting various classes of low-mass stars (from M to A-type stars) has been discovered. In such systems, the dissipation of the kinetic energy of tidal flows in the host star may…
In recent years, there have been a growing number of observations indicating the presence of rocky material in short-period orbits around white dwarfs. In this Letter, we revisit the prospects for habitability around these…
Feedbacks that can destabilize the climates of synchronously-rotating rocky planets may arise on planets with strong day-night surface temperature contrasts. Earth-like habitable-zone (HZ) planets maintain stable surface liquid water over…
Hot Jupiters are expected to form far from their host star and move toward close-in, circular orbits via a smooth, monotonic decay due to mild and constant tidal dissipation. Yet, three systems have recently been found exhibiting…
We consider the evolution of a system containing a population of massive planets formed rapidly through a fragmentation process occurring on a scale on the order of 100 au and a lower mass planet that assembles in a disc on a much longer…
Whether binaries can harbor potentially habitable planets depends on several factors including the physical properties and the orbital characteristics of the binary system. While the former determines the location of the habitable zone…
Short period exoplanets on circular orbits are thought to be tidally locked into synchronous rotation. If tidally locked, these planets must possess permanent day- and nightsides, with extreme irradiation on the dayside and none on the…
The planet formation process and subsequent planet migration may lead to configurations resulting in strong dynamical interactions among the various planets. Well-studied possible outcomes include collisions between planets, scattering…
Determining planetary habitability is a complex matter, as the interplay between a planet's physical and atmospheric properties with stellar insolation has to be studied in a self consistent manner. Standardized atmospheric models for…
The architecture of exoplanetary systems is often different from the solar system, with some exoplanets being in close orbits around their host stars and having orbital periods of only a few days. In analogy to interactions between stars in…
The rotation of a planet located in the habitable zone of a solar-type star can be reversed by a smooth process associated with the formation of its atmosphere and the increase of stronger torques, opposite to normal tidal torques. Our…
A planetary system may undergo significant radial rearrangement during the early part of its lifetime. Planet migration can come about through interaction with the surrounding planetesimal disk and the gas disk--while the latter is still…
The tidal heating of hypothetical rocky (or terrestrial) extra-solar planets spans a wide range of values depending on stellar masses and initial orbits. Tidal heating may be sufficiently large (in many cases, in excess of radiogenic…
The discovery of now about 20 extrasolar planets orbiting solar-type stars with properties quite different from those in our Solar System has raised many questions about the formation and evolution of planets. The tidal interaction between…
Hycean planets -- exoplanets with substantial water ice layers, deep surface oceans, and hydrogen-rich atmospheres -- are thought to be favorable environments for life. Due to a relative paucity of atmospheric greenhouse gases, hycean…
The discovery of an increasing number of Jupiter-like planets in orbit around other stars (or extra-solar planets) is a promising first step toward the search for Life in the Universe. We review all aspects of the question: - definition of…