Transient conditions for biogenesis on low-mass exoplanets with escaping hydrogen atmospheres
arXiv:1106.1411 · doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2012.02.035
Abstract
Exoplanets with lower equilibrium temperatures than Earth and primordial hydrogen atmospheres that evaporate after formation should pass through transient periods where oceans can form on their surfaces, as liquid water can form below a few thousand bar pressure and H2-H2 collision-induced absorption provides significant greenhouse warming. The duration of the transient period depends on the planet size, starting H2 inventory and star type, with the longest periods typically occurring for planets around M-class stars. As pre-biotic compounds readily form in the reducing chemistry of hydrogen-rich atmospheres, conditions on these planets could be favourable to the emergence of life. The ultimate fate of any emergent organisms under such conditions would depend on their ability to adapt to (or modify) their gradually cooling environment.
19 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in Icarus
References in corpus (10)
- Habitable planets around the star Gl 581?
- Disequilibrium Carbon, Oxygen, and Nitrogen Chemistry in the Atmospheres of HD 189733b and HD 209458b
- A ground-based transmission spectrum of the super-Earth exoplanet GJ1214b
- Hydrogen Greenhouse Planets Beyond the Habitable Zone
- Inevitability of Plate Tectonics on Super-Earths
- Ranges of Atmospheric Mass and Composition of Super Earth Exoplanets
- Is Gliese 581d habitable? Some constraints from radiative-convective climate modeling
- Astrophysical Parameters and Habitable Zone of the Exoplanet Hosting Star GJ 581
- Thermally-driven atmospheric escape: Transition from hydrodynamic to Jeans escape
- The Steppenwolf: A proposal for a habitable planet in interstellar space
Cited by in corpus (33)
- 3D modelling of the early Martian Climate under a denser CO2 atmosphere: Temperatures and CO2 ice clouds
- Photochemistry in Terrestrial Exoplanet Atmospheres I: Photochemistry Model and Benchmark Cases
- How to Characterize Habitable Worlds and Signs of Life
- Water loss from terrestrial planets with CO2-rich atmospheres
- Outgassing History and Escape of the Martian Atmosphere and Water Inventory
- Habitability and Biosignatures of Hycean Worlds
- Photochemistry in Terrestrial Exoplanet Atmospheres II: H2S and SO2 Photochemistry in Anoxic Atmospheres
- Indication of insensitivity of planetary weathering behavior and habitable zone to surface land fraction
- Probing the Blow-Off Criteria of Hydrogen-Rich "Super-Earths"
- A Volcanic Hydrogen Habitable Zone
- Habitability of Exoplanet Waterworlds
- Redox evolution via gravitational differentiation on low mass planets: implications for abiotic oxygen, water loss and habitability
- Atmospheres of Rocky Exoplanets
- Vertically resolved magma ocean-protoatmosphere evolution: H, HO, CO, CH, CO, O, and N as primary absorbers
- A more comprehensive habitable zone for finding life on other planets
- Formation, tidal evolution and habitability of the Kepler-186 system
- Escape and fractionation of volatiles and noble gases from Mars-sized planetary embryos and growing protoplanets
- Global climate modeling of Saturn's atmosphere. Part II: multi-annual high-resolution dynamical simulations
- Analytical investigation of the decrease in the size of the habitable zone due to limited CO outgassing rate
- Hydrogen isotopic evidence for early oxidation of silicate Earth
- Can Volcanism Build Hydrogen-Rich Early Atmospheres?
- Super-Earths and Earth-like Exoplanets
- Hot Hydrogen Climates near the inner edge of the Habitable Zone
- On the probability of habitable planets
- Evolution and Spectral Response of a Steam Atmosphere for Early Earth with a coupled climate-interior model
- Potential long-term habitable conditions on planets with primordial H-He atmospheres
- A primordial atmospheric origin of hydrospheric deuterium enrichment on Mars
- Narrow loophole for H2-dominated atmospheres on habitable rocky planets around M dwarfs
- Self-sustaining living habitats in extraterrestrial environments
- A proposal for climate stability on H2-greenhouse planets
- H-Atmospheres of Icy Super-Earths Formed in situ in the Outer Solar System: An Application to a Possible Planet Nine
- The Habitability of GJ 357 d : Possible Climates and Observability
- The continued importance of habitability studies