Climate Stability of Habitable Earth-like Planets

Abstract

The carbon-silicate cycle regulates the atmospheric $C{O}_2$ content of terrestrial planets on geological timescales through a balance between the rates of $C{O}_2$ volcanic outgassing and planetary intake from rock weathering. It is thought to act as an efficient climatic thermostat on Earth and, by extension, on other habitable planets. If, however, the weathering rate increases with the atmospheric $C{O}_2$ content, as expected on planets lacking land vascular plants, the carbon-silicate cycle feedback can become severely limited. Here we show that Earth-like planets receiving less sunlight than current Earth may no longer possess a stable warm climate but instead repeatedly cycle between unstable glaciated and deglaciated climatic states. This has implications for the search for life on exoplanets in the habitable zone of nearby stars.

13 pages, 3 figures

References in corpus (2)

• Habitable planets around the star Gl 581?
• Geodynamics and Rate of Volcanism on Massive Earth-like Planets

Cited by in corpus (39)

• Exoplanet Biosignatures: A Review of Remotely Detectable Signs of Life
• How to Characterize Habitable Worlds and Signs of Life
• The Occurrence of Rocky Habitable Zone Planets Around Solar-Like Stars from Kepler Data
• The Role of Plate Tectonic-Climate Coupling and Exposed Land Area in the Development of Habitable Climates on Rocky Planets
• Outgassing on stagnant-lid super-Earths
• Carbon cycling and habitability of Earth-size stagnant lid planets
• Limit cycles can reduce the width of the habitable zone
• A more comprehensive habitable zone for finding life on other planets
• No snowball on habitable tidally locked planets
• A warmer and wetter solution for early Mars and the challenges with transient warming
• Climate Cycling on Early Mars Caused by the Carbonate-Silicate Cycle
• Thermodynamic and Energetic Limits on Continental Silicate Weathering Strongly Impact the Climate and Habitability of Wet, Rocky Worlds
• Analytical investigation of the decrease in the size of the habitable zone due to limited CO${}_2$ outgassing rate
• CO2 condensation is a serious limit to the deglaciation of Earth-like planets
• Habitability of Earth-like stagnant lid planets: Climate evolution and recovery from snowball states
• Could Cirrus Clouds Have Warmed Early Mars?
• No Snowball on Habitable Tidally Locked Planets with a Dynamic Ocean
• GCM Simulations of Unstable Climates in the Habitable Zone
• Warming Early Mars with Climate Cycling: The Effect of CO2-H2 Collision-induced Absorption
• Abrupt climate transition of icy worlds from snowball to moist or runaway greenhouse
• Habitable Snowballs: Temperate Land Conditions, Liquid Water, and Implications for CO${}_2$ Weathering
• Quantitative estimates of the surface habitability of Kepler-452b
• Hydrohalite Salt-albedo Feedback Could Cool M-dwarf Planets
• Decrease in hysteresis of planetary climate for planets with long solar days
• Habitability from Tidally-Induced Tectonics
• Habitable Zone Boundaries for Circumbinary Planets
• An Energy Balance Model for Rapidly and Synchronously Rotating Terrestrial Planets
• CO${}_2$ ocean bistability on terrestrial exoplanets
• High pCO${}_2$ reduces sensitivity to CO${}_2$ perturbations on temperate, Earth-like planets throughout most of habitable zone
• The Effect of Seafloor Weathering on Planetary Habitability
• Carbon cycle instability for high-$\mathrm{C}{\mathrm{O}}_2$ exoplanets: Implications for habitability
• The Drake Equation as a Function of Spectral Type and Time
• On the behaviour of spin-orbit connection of exoplanets
• Snowball Bistability Vanishes at Moderate Orbital Eccentricity
• Limit cycles and the climate history of Mars
• Not Earth-like Yet Temperate? More Generic Climate Feedback Configurations Still Allow Temperate Climates in Habitable Zone Exo-Earth Candidates
• Mantle Degassing Lifetimes through Galactic Time and the Maximum Age Stagnant-lid Rocky Exoplanets can Support Temperate Climates
• When Stabilizing Feedbacks Wreak Havoc in Habitable Planets: Chaos at the Freezing Point in a Four-Feedback Climate Model
• Climate uncertainties caused by unknown land distribution on habitable M-Earths