Related papers: Moderately High Obliquity Promotes Biospheric Oxyg…
Variations in the axial tilt, or obliquity, of terrestrial planets can affect their climates and therefore their habitability. Kepler-62f is a 1.4 R$_\oplus$ planet orbiting within the habitable zone of its K2 dwarf host star (Borucki et…
The Great Oxidation Event was a period during which Earth's atmospheric oxygen (O$_2$) concentrations increased from $\sim 10^{-5}$ times its present atmospheric level (PAL) to near modern levels, marking the start of the Proterozoic…
Oxygen is a well-studied biosignature. Studying potential abiotic pathways for O2 build-up in exoplanet atmospheres is essential for evaluating whether the detection of O2 would constitute a biosignature detection on other worlds. Previous…
Global climate evolution models for habitable earthlike planets do not consider the effect of ocean salinity on land ice formation through the hydrological cycle. We consider two categories of such planets: planets with deep oceans, but…
Future telescopes will characterize rocky exoplanets in reflected light, revealing their albedo, which depends on surface, cloud, and atmospheric properties. Identifying these features is crucial for assessing habitability. We present…
We review how tides may impact the habitability of terrestrial-like planets. If such planets form around low-mass stars, then planets in the circumstellar habitable zone will be close enough to their host stars to experience strong tidal…
Misalignments between planetary orbits and the equatorial planes of their host stars are clues about the formation and evolution of planetary systems. Earlier work found evidence for a peak near $90^\circ$ in the distribution of stellar…
The architecture of a planetary system can influence the habitability of a planet via orbital effects, particularly in the areas of stability and eccentricity. Some of these effects are readily apparent, particularly when they occur on…
Stellar flares present challenges to the potential habitability of terrestrial planets orbiting M dwarf stars through inducing changes in the atmospheric composition and irradiating the planet's surface in large amounts of ultraviolet…
We compute the ozone distribution for a model terrestrial paleoatmosphere in which the present oxygen abundance is largely replaced by carbon dioxide, which we argue is a reasonable working assumption. In principle, the presence of carbon…
Terrestrial exoplanets in the canonical habitable zone may have a variety of initial water fractions due to random volatile delivery by planetesimals. If the total planetary water complement is high, the entire surface may be covered in…
Previous research has indicated that high amounts of ozone (O3) and oxygen (O2) may be produced abiotically in atmospheres with high concentrations of CO2. The abiotic production of these two gases, which are also characteristic of…
Measurements of the obliquities in exoplanet systems have revealed some remarkable architectures, some of which are very different from the Solar System. Nearly 200 obliquity measurements have been obtained through observations of the…
Using an idealised climate model incorporating seasonal forcing, we investigate the impact of rotation rate on the abundance of clouds on an Earth-like aquaplanet, and the resulting impacts upon albedo and seasonality. We show that the…
During the post-main sequence phase of stellar evolution the orbital distance of the habitable zone, which allows for liquid surface water on terrestrial planets, moves out past the system's original frost line, providing an opportunity for…
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…
Exoplanet habitability is traditionally assessed by comparing a planet's semi-major axis to the location of its host star's "habitable zone," the shell around a star for which Earth-like planets can possess liquid surface water. The Kepler…
A giant impact origin for the Moon is generally accepted, but many aspects of lunar formation remain poorly understood and debated. \'Cuk et al. (2016) proposed that an impact that left the Earth-Moon system with high obliquity and angular…
The habitable zone (HZ) is the circumstellar region where a planet can sustain surface liquid water. Searching for terrestrial planets in the HZ of nearby stars is the stated goal of ongoing and planned extrasolar planet surveys. Previous…
Rotation in planetary atmospheres plays an important role in regulating atmospheric and oceanic heat flow, cloud formation and precipitation. Using the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) three dimension General Circulation Model…