Stabilizing Cloud Feedback Dramatically Expands the Habitable Zone of Tidally Locked Planets

Abstract

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 estimates of the inner edge of the HZ were based on one-dimensional radiative-convective models. The most serious limitation of these models is the inability to predict cloud behavior. Here we use global climate models with sophisticated cloud schemes to show that due to a stabilizing cloud feedback, tidally locked planets can be habitable at twice the stellar flux found by previous studies. This dramatically expands the HZ and roughly doubles the frequency of habitable planets orbiting red dwarf stars. At high stellar flux, strong convection produces thick water clouds near the substellar location that greatly increase the planetary albedo and reduce surface temperatures. Higher insolation produces stronger substellar convection and therefore higher albedo, making this phenomenon a stabilizing climate feedback. Substellar clouds also effectively block outgoing radiation from the surface, reducing or even completely reversing the thermal emission contrast between dayside and nightside. The presence of substellar water clouds and the resulting clement surface conditions will therefore be detectable with the James Webb Space Telescope.

6 pages, 4 figures, 1 online table

References in corpus (6)

• Habitable planets around the star Gl 581?
• Atmospheric dynamics of Earth-like tidally locked aquaplanets
• Hot Nights on Extrasolar Planets: Mid-IR Phase Variations of Hot Jupiters
• A New 24 micron Phase Curve for upsilon Andromedae b
• Clouds in the atmospheres of extrasolar planets. I. Climatic effects of multi-layered clouds for Earth-like planets and implications for habitable zones
• The Dynamics-Based Approach to Studying Terrestrial Exoplanets

Cited by in corpus (231)

• Habitable Zones Around Main-Sequence Stars: Dependence on Planetary Mass
• Exoplanet Biosignatures: A Review of Remotely Detectable Signs of Life
• Increased insolation threshold for runaway greenhouse processes on Earth like planets
• The Habitability of Planets Orbiting M-dwarf Stars
• The habitability of Proxima Centauri b II. Possible climates and Observability
• Impact of Space Weather on Climate and Habitability of Terrestrial Type Exoplanets
• Water loss from Earth-sized planets in the habitable zones of ultracool dwarfs: Implications for the planets of TRAPPIST-1
• The habitability of Proxima Centauri b. I. Irradiation, rotation and volatile inventory from formation to the present
• The inner edge of the habitable zone for synchronously rotating planets around low-mass stars using general circulation models
• Tidal Locking of Habitable Exoplanets
• The cosmic shoreline: the evidence that escape determines which planets have atmospheres, and what this may mean for Proxima Centauri b
• Exoplanetary Atmospheres - Chemistry, Formation Conditions, and Habitability
• Assessing the Habitability of the TRAPPIST-1 System Using a 3D Climate Model
• Habitable Moist Atmospheres On Terrestrial Planets Near the Inner Edge Of the Habitable Zone Around M-dwarfs
• Modelling climate diversity, tidal dynamics and the fate of volatiles on TRAPPIST-1 planets
• Asynchronous rotation of Earth-mass planets in the habitable zone of lower-mass stars
• The Occurrence of Rocky Habitable Zone Planets Around Solar-Like Stars from Kepler Data
• Exoplanet Biosignatures: Observational Prospects
• Habitable Evaporated Cores: Transforming Mini-Neptunes into Super-Earths in the Habitable Zones of M Dwarfs
• Habitability and Biosignatures of Hycean Worlds
• Characterizing Transiting Planet Atmospheres through 2025
• Remote Life Detection Criteria, Habitable Zone Boundaries, and the Frequency of Earthlike Planets around M and Late-K Stars
• A Catalog of Kepler Habitable Zone Exoplanet Candidates
• The Habitable Zones of Pre-Main-Sequence Stars
• Day-night cloud asymmetry prevents early oceans on Venus but not on Earth
• Atmospheric dynamics of terrestrial exoplanets over a wide range of orbital and atmospheric parameters
• Impact of Clouds and Hazes on the Simulated JWST Transmission Spectra of Habitable Zone Planets in the TRAPPIST-1 System
• Effects of Extreme Obliquity Variations on the Habitability of Exoplanets
• Exploring the climate of Proxima B with the Met Office Unified Model
• Resolving Orbital and Climate Keys of Earth and Extraterrestrial Environments with Dynamics 1.0: A General Circulation Model for Simulating the Climates of Rocky Planets
• Habitable Climate Scenarios for Proxima Centauri b With a Dynamic Ocean
• Demarcating circulation regimes of synchronously rotating terrestrial planets within the habitable zone
• Superhabitable Worlds
• Detectability of atmospheric features of Earth-like planets in the habitable zone around M dwarfs
• Persistence of Flare-Driven Atmospheric Chemistry on Rocky Habitable Zone Worlds
• Aerosols in Exoplanet Atmospheres
• Temporal evolution of the high-energy irradiation and water content of TRAPPIST-1 exoplanets
• Revised mass-radius relationships for water-rich rocky planets more irradiated than the runaway greenhouse limit
• On the Frequency of Potential Venus Analogs from Kepler Data
• Transition to a Moist Greenhouse with CO${}_2$ and solar forcing
• Climate of Earth-like planets with high obliquity and eccentric orbits: implications for habitability conditions
• Atmospheric Regimes and Trends on Exoplanets and Brown Dwarfs
• Atmospheres of Rocky Exoplanets
• Constraints on Climate and Habitability for Earth-like Exoplanets Determined from a General Circulation Model
• Connecting the dots II: Phase changes in the climate dynamics of tidally locked terrestrial exoplanets
• Prospects for Characterizing the Atmosphere of Proxima Centauri b
• Habitability of planets on eccentric orbits: the limits of the mean flux approximation
• Temperature Structure and Atmospheric Circulation of Dry, Tidally Locked Rocky Exoplanets
• A review of possible planetary atmospheres in the TRAPPIST-1 system
• Deciphering thermal phase curves of dry, tidally locked terrestrial planets
• Atmospheric effects of stellar cosmic rays on Earth-like exoplanets orbiting M-dwarfs
• Exoplanet Classification and Yield Estimates for Direct Imaging Missions
• The atmospheric circulation and climate of terrestrial planets orbiting Sun-like and M-dwarf stars over a broad range of planetary parameters
• Water Trapping on Tidally Locked Terrestrial Planets Requires Special Conditions
• A more comprehensive habitable zone for finding life on other planets
• Identifying Atmospheres on Rocky Exoplanets Through Inferred High Albedo
• Distinguishing oceans of water from magma on mini-Neptune K2-18b
• The TRAPPIST-1 Habitable Atmosphere Intercomparison (THAI). Part II: Moist Cases -- The Two Waterworlds
• No snowball on habitable tidally locked planets
• Interior Structures and Tidal Heating in the TRAPPIST-1 Planets
• Possible climates on terrestrial exoplanets
• Climates of Warm Earth-like Planets I: 3-D Model Simulations
• Formation, tidal evolution and habitability of the Kepler-186 system
• NIR-Driven Moist Upper Atmospheres of Synchronously Rotating Temperate Terrestrial Exoplanets
• The Role of N2 as a Geo-Biosignature for the Detection and Characterization of Earth-like Habitats
• Wave-Mean Flow Interactions in the Atmospheric Circulation of Tidally Locked Planets
• The Equilibrium Temperature of Planets in Elliptical Orbits
• The Atmospheric Circulation and Observable Properties of Non-Synchronously Rotating Hot Jupiters
• Differences in water vapor radiative transfer among 1D models can significantly affect the inner edge of the habitable zone
• Ocean Dynamics and the Inner Edge of the Habitable Zone for Tidally Locked Terrestrial Planets
• Two temperate super-Earths transiting a nearby late-type M dwarf
• Atmospheric convection plays a key role in the climate of tidally-locked terrestrial exoplanets: insights from high-resolution simulations
• The TRAPPIST-1 Habitable Atmosphere Intercomparison (THAI). Part III: Simulated Observables -- The return of the spectrum
• Habitability and Spectroscopic Observability of Warm M-dwarf Exoplanets Evaluated with a 3D Chemistry-Climate Model
• Clouds will likely prevent the detection of water vapor in JWST transmission spectra of terrestrial exoplanets
• Runaway greenhouse effect on exomoons due to irradiation from hot, young giant planets
• Simulations of Water Vapor and Clouds on Rapidly Rotating and Tidally Locked Planets: a 3D Model Intercomparison
• Formation and dynamics of water clouds on temperate sub-Neptunes: The example of K2-18b
• The influence of a sub-stellar continent on the climate of a tidally-locked exoplanet
• The Catalog of Earth-Like Exoplanet Survey TArgets (CELESTA): A Database of Habitable Zones around Nearby Stars
• A Scaling for Atmospheric Heat Redistribution on Tidally-Locked Rocky Planets
• Planet-Planet Occultations in TRAPPIST-1 and Other Exoplanet Systems
• On the Temperature Profiles and Emission Spectra of Mini-Neptune Atmospheres
• GJ 273: On the formation, dynamical evolution and habitability of a planetary system hosted by an M dwarf at 3.75 parsec
• The Effect of Orbital Configuration on the Possible Climates and Habitability of Kepler-62f
• Exoplanet phase curves: observations and theory
• Thermodynamic and Energetic Limits on Continental Silicate Weathering Strongly Impact the Climate and Habitability of Wet, Rocky Worlds
• Dim Prospects for Transmission Spectra of Ocean Earths Around M Stars
• A Low-order Model of Water Vapor, Clouds, and Thermal Emission for Tidally Locked Terrestrial Planets
• Origins Space Telescope Mission Concept Study Report
• Analytical investigation of the decrease in the size of the habitable zone due to limited CO${}_2$ outgassing rate
• Modeling the surface temperature of Earth-like planets
• 3D climate modeling of Earth-like extrasolar planets orbiting different types of host stars
• Exomoons in the habitable zones of M dwarfs
• Distinguishing between wet and dry atmospheres of TRAPPIST-1 e and f
• The First Habitable Zone Earth-Sized Planet From TESS II: $Spitzer$ Confirms TOI-700 d
• Stratosphere circulation on tidally locked ExoEarths
• Obliquity and Eccentricity Constraints For Terrestrial Exoplanets
• The Climates of Other Worlds: A Review of the Emerging Field of Exoplanet Climatology
• THOR 2.0: Major Improvements to the Open-Source General Circulation Model
• Lightning Chemistry on Earth-like Exoplanets
• Super-Earths and Earth-like Exoplanets
• Biosignature Anisotropy Modeled on Temperate Tidally Locked M-dwarf Planets
• Accounting for Multiplicity in Calculating Eta Earth
• Exo-Milankovitch Cycles II: Climates of G-dwarf Planets in Dynamically Hot Systems
• Hot Hydrogen Climates near the inner edge of the Habitable Zone
• Assessing the habitability of planets with Earth-like atmospheres with 1D and 3D climate modeling
• The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence in Earth's Solar Transit Zone
• Water Condensation Zones around Main Sequence Stars
• Enhanced Habitability on High Obliquity Bodies near the Outer Edge of the Habitable Zone of Sun-like Stars
• The habitability of stagnant-lid Earths around dwarf stars
• Comparative terrestrial atmospheric circulation regimes in simplified global circulation models: I. from cyclostrophic super-rotation to geostrophic turbulence
• The K2-3 system revisited: testing photoevaporation and core-powered mass loss with three small planets spanning the radius valley
• The First Habitable Zone Earth-sized Planet from TESS. III: Climate States and Characterization Prospects for TOI-700 d
• A New Model Suite to Determine the Influence of Cosmic Rays on (Exo)planetary Atmospheric Biosignatures -- Validation based on Modern Earth
• Connecting the dots III: Night side cooling and surface friction affect climates of tidally locked terrestrial planets
• The Effect of Substellar Continent Size on Ocean Dynamics of Proxima Centauri b
• Water Ice Cloud Variability & Multi-Epoch Transmission Spectra of TRAPPIST-1e
• Simulated Phase-dependent Spectra of Terrestrial Aquaplanets in M Dwarf Systems
• Climate Modeling of a Potential ExoVenus
• Why do we find ourselves around a yellow star instead of a red star?
• Terminator Habitability: the Case for Limited Water Availability on M-dwarf Planets
• Albedos, Equilibrium Temperatures, and Surface Temperatures of Habitable Planets
• Implications of different stellar spectra for the climate of tidally-locked Earth-like exoplanets
• Implications of tides for life on exoplanets
• 3D convection-resolving model of temperate, tidally-locked exoplanets
• Abrupt climate transition of icy worlds from snowball to moist or runaway greenhouse
• ExoPlaSim: Extending the Planet Simulator for Exoplanets
• Episodic deluges in simulated hothouse climates
• PyMieDAP: a Python--Fortran tool to compute fluxes and polarization signals of (exo)planets
• The CARMENES search for exoplanets around M dwarfs. Dynamical characterization of the multiple planet system GJ 1148 and prospects of habitable exomoons around GJ 1148 b
• The TRAPPIST-1 JWST Community Initiative
• Evolution of Earth-like planetary atmospheres around M-dwarf stars: Assessing the atmospheres and biospheres with a coupled atmosphere biogeochemical model
• Using polarimetry to retrieve the cloud coverage of Earth-like exoplanets
• Lightning-induced chemistry on tidally-locked Earth-like exoplanets
• Effects of Radius and Gravity on the Inner Edge of the Habitable Zone
• Internal Structure and CO${}_2$ Reservoirs of Habitable Water-Worlds
• Effects of Spin-Orbit Resonances and Tidal Heating on the Inner Edge of the Habitable Zone
• Temperature Structures Associated with Different Components of the Atmospheric Circulation on Tidally Locked Exoplanets
• Stabilization of dayside surface liquid water via tropopause cold trapping on arid slowly rotating tidally locked planets
• Sporadic Spin-Orbit Variations in Compact Multi-planet Systems and their Influence on Exoplanet Climate
• Geothermal heating enhances atmospheric asymmetries on synchronously rotating planets
• How does Background Air Pressure Influence the Inner Edge of the Habitable Zone for Tidally Locked Planets in a 3D View?
• K2-155: A Bright Metal-Poor M Dwarf with Three Transiting Super-Earths
• How does the background atmosphere affect the onset of the runaway greenhouse ?
• Decrease in hysteresis of planetary climate for planets with long solar days
• Stellar Activity Effects on Moist Habitable Terrestrial Atmospheres Around M dwarfs
• Longitudinally asymmetric stratospheric oscillation on a tidally locked exoplanet
• MHD study of extreme space weather conditions for exoplanets with Earth-like magnetospheres: On habitability conditions and radio-emission
• Impact of ηearth on the capabilities of affordable space missions to detect biosignatures on extrasolar planets
• A Catalog of Stellar Evolution Profiles and the Effects of Variable Composition on Habitable Systems
• Atmospheric Dynamics of a Near Tidally Locked Earth-Size Planet
• The LHS 1678 System: Two Earth-Sized Transiting Planets and an Astrometric Companion Orbiting an M Dwarf Near the Convective Boundary at 20 pc
• Climate Diversity in the Solar-Like Habitable Zone due to Varying Background Gas Pressure
• GCM Constraints on the Detectability of the CO${}_2$-CH${}_4$ Biosignature Pair on TRAPPIST-1e with JWST
• 3-D climate simulations for the detectability of Proxima Centauri b
• The effect of high nitrogen pressures on the habitable zone and an appraisal of greenhouse states
• A New Line-By-Line General Circulation Model for Simulations of Diverse Planetary Atmospheres: Initial Validation and Application to the Exoplanet GJ 1132b
• A population-based Habitable Zone perspective
• Global or Local Pure-Condensible Atmospheres: Importance of Horizontal Latent Heat Transport
• On the radial velocity detection of additional planets in transiting, slowly rotating M-dwarf systems: the case of GJ 1132
• Habitable Zone Boundaries for Circumbinary Planets
• Phase Shift of Planetary Waves and Wave--Jet Resonance on Tidally Locked Planets
• Eta-Earth Revisited II: Deriving a Maximum Number of Earth-like Habitats in the Galactic Disk
• Dust in brown dwarfs and extra-solar planets V. Cloud formation in carbon- and oxygen-rich environment
• Hydrologic Cycle Weakening in Hothouse Climates
• Aquaplanet Models on Eccentric Orbits: Effects of Rotation Rate on Observables
• Small Sensitivity of the Simulated Climate of Tidally Locked Aquaplanets to Model Resolution
• Greater climate sensitivity and variability on TRAPPIST-1e than Earth
• Triaxial Deformation and Asynchronous Rotation of Rocky Planets in the Habitable Zone of Low-Mass Stars
• Climates of Warm Earth-Like Planets III: Fractional Habitability from a Water Cycle Perspective
• Photosynthetic Potential of Planets in 3:2 Spin Orbit Resonances
• Finding Signs of Life in Transit: High-resolution Transmission Spectra of Earth-like Planets around FGKM Host Stars
• First exploration of the runaway greenhouse transition with a GCM
• MIRECLE: Science Yield for a Mid-IR Explorer-Class Mission to Study Non-Transiting Rocky Planets Orbiting the Nearest M-Stars Using Planetary Infrared Excess
• Sensitivity of the Atmospheric Water Cycle within the Habitable Zone of a Tidally-Locked, Earth-like Exoplanet
• An Energy Balance Model for Rapidly and Synchronously Rotating Terrestrial Planets
• Energy Budgets for Terrestrial Extrasolar Planets
• Traveling planetary-scale waves cause cloud variability on tidally locked aquaplanets
• The Impact of Planetary Rotation Rate on the Reflectance and Thermal Emission Spectrum of Terrestrial Exoplanets Around Sun-like Stars
• Atmospheric Overturning Circulation on Dry, Tidally-locked Rocky Planets is Mainly Driven by Radiative Cooling
• On the Habitability of Teegarden's Star planets
• High-Resolution spectral models of TRAPPIST-1e seen as a Pale Blue Dot for ELT and JWST observations
• The Phase-curve Signature of Condensible Water-rich Atmospheres on Slowly Rotating Tidally Locked Exoplanets
• Climate of high obliquity exo-terrestrial planets with a three-dimensional cloud system resolving climate model
• Effects of a Binary Companion Star on Habitability of Tidally Locked Planets around an M-type Host Star
• Multiple moist climate equilibrium states on arid rocky M-dwarf planets: A last-saturation tracer analysis
• Constraints on Aquatic Photosynthesis for Terrestrial Planets Around Other Stars
• Hurricane genesis is favorable on terrestrial exoplanets orbiting late-type M dwarf stars
• Characteristics of aquatic biospheres on temperate planets around Sun-like stars and M-dwarfs
• Potential Interior Structures and Habitability of Super-Earth Exoplanets LHS 1140 b, K2-18 b, TOI-1452 b and TOI-1468 c
• Tracing the Inner Edge of the Habitable Zone with Sulfur Chemistry
• Effect of vegetation on the temperatures of Trappist-1 planets
• Carbon cycle instability for high-$\mathrm{C}{\mathrm{O}}_2$ exoplanets: Implications for habitability
• Tidal evolution of Earth-like planets in the habitable zone of low-mass stars
• Effects of transient stellar emissions on planetary climates of tidally-locked exo-earths
• Idealized 2D Cloud-Resolving Simulations for Tidally Locked Habitable Planets
• Hurricanes on tidally locked terrestrial planets: Fixed surface temperature experiments
• Venus Cloud Research: Progress and Perspectives
• Orbital evolution of potentially habitable planets of tidally interacting binary stars
• Absence of a Runaway Greenhouse Limit on Lava Planets
• A One-Dimensional Energy Balance Model Parameterization for the Formation of CO2 Ice on the Surfaces of Eccentric Extrasolar Planets
• Influence of Biomass Emissions upon Habitability, Biosignatures and Detectability in Earth-like Atmospheres
• Impact of Planetary Parameters on Water Clouds Microphysics
• Lorenz Energy Cycle: Another Way to Understand the Atmospheric Circulation on Tidally Locked Terrestrial Planets
• Hot Earth or Young Venus? A nearby transiting rocky planet mystery
• Oceanic Superrotation on Tidally Locked Planets
• The Astrobiology of the Anthropocene
• Radial velocity homogeneous analysis of M dwarfs observed with HARPS. II. Detection limits and planetary occurrence statistics
• The Science Case for an Extended Spitzer Mission
• Increased Surface Temperatures of Habitable White Dwarf Worlds Relative to Main-Sequence Exoplanets
• Dual-Backend Multibeam Position Switching Targeted SETI Observations toward Nearby Active Planet-Hosting Systems with FAST
• The Feasibility of Asynchronous Rotation via Thermal Tides for Diverse Atmospheric Compositions
• Lightning activity on a tidally locked terrestrial exoplanet in storm-resolving simulations for a range of surface pressures
• The climates and thermal emission spectra of prime nearby temperate rocky exoplanet targets
• Atmospheric gravitational tides of Earth-like planets orbiting low-mass stars
• The continued importance of habitability studies
• Main ways in which stars influence the climate and surface habitability of their planets
• Near the Runaway: The Climate and Habitability of Teegarden's Star b
• Atmospheric heat redistribution and collapse on tidally locked rocky planets
• The Onset of a Globally Ice-covered State for a Land Planet
• The Color of Habitability
• Habitability of polar regions in tidally locked extrasolar planet near the M-Dwarf stars
• Mechanisms of Superrotation in Slowly-Rotating and Tidally-Locked Planets
• Topography-Induced Stationary Waves and the Onset of Nightside Warming on Rocky Planets around M-dwarf Stars
• An Evolving Cosmic Shoreline and Sandbar Bounding the Rocky Airless Valley
• Assessing the Climate and Habitability of Tidally Locked Rocky Exoplanets
• Leveraging Models to Constrain the Climates of Rocky Exoplanets
• Retention of surface water on tidally locked rocky planets in the Venus zone around M dwarfs
• Asymmetry and Variability in the Transmission Spectra of Tidally Locked Habitable Planets
• High-CO2 Climates and Observables in the Outer Habitable Zone