Circumstellar habitable zones for deep terrestrial biospheres

Sean Hendry McMahon; Jack O'Malley-James; John Parnell

doi:10.1016/j.pss.2013.07.002

Circumstellar habitable zones for deep terrestrial biospheres

Sean Hendry McMahon, Jack O'Malley-James, John Parnell

Geology and Geophysics

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

17 Citations (Scopus)

9 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The habitable zone (HZ) is conventionally the thin shell of space around a star within which liquid water is thermally stable on the surface of an Earth-like planet (Kasting et al., 1993). However, life on Earth is not restricted to the surface and includes a "deep biosphere" reaching several km in depth. Similarly, subsurface liquid water maintained by internal planetary heat could potentially support life well outside conventional HZs. We introduce a new term, subsurface-habitability zone (SSHZ) to denote the range of distances from a star within which rocky planets are habitable at any depth below their surfaces up to a stipulated maximum, and show how SSHZs can be estimated from a model relating temperature, depth and orbital distance. We present results for Earth-like, Mars-like and selected extrasolar terrestrial planets, and conclude that SSHZs are several times wider and include many more planets than conventional surface-based habitable zones. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	312-318
Number of pages	7
Journal	Planetary and space science
Volume	85
Early online date	18 Jul 2013
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pss.2013.07.002
Publication status	Published - 1 Sep 2013

Keywords

habitable zones
deep biosphere
subsurface
astrobiology
exobiology
extrasolar planets
main-sequence stars
Mars
planets
energy
clouds
earths
life

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10.1016/j.pss.2013.07.002

McMahonetal PSS Circumstellar DB Pre-format
NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Planetary and Space Science. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in PLANETARY AND SPACE SCIENCE, VOL 85, (2013) DOI: 10.1016/j.pss.2013.07.002
Accepted author manuscript, 2.45 MB

Cite this

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title = "Circumstellar habitable zones for deep terrestrial biospheres",

abstract = "The habitable zone (HZ) is conventionally the thin shell of space around a star within which liquid water is thermally stable on the surface of an Earth-like planet (Kasting et al., 1993). However, life on Earth is not restricted to the surface and includes a {"}deep biosphere{"} reaching several km in depth. Similarly, subsurface liquid water maintained by internal planetary heat could potentially support life well outside conventional HZs. We introduce a new term, subsurface-habitability zone (SSHZ) to denote the range of distances from a star within which rocky planets are habitable at any depth below their surfaces up to a stipulated maximum, and show how SSHZs can be estimated from a model relating temperature, depth and orbital distance. We present results for Earth-like, Mars-like and selected extrasolar terrestrial planets, and conclude that SSHZs are several times wider and include many more planets than conventional surface-based habitable zones. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.",

keywords = "habitable zones, deep biosphere, subsurface, astrobiology, exobiology, extrasolar planets, main-sequence stars, Mars, planets, energy, clouds, earths, life",

author = "McMahon, {Sean Hendry} and Jack O'Malley-James and John Parnell",

note = "SM and JOJ are grateful to the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) for Aurora Studentships. We thank Dr. Stephen Clifford (LPI), Dr. Ravi Kopparapu (Penn State), and Claire Davis (St. Andrews) for generous technical advice. We thank Norm Sleep and two anonymous reviewers for constructive reviews of the manuscript",

year = "2013",

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doi = "10.1016/j.pss.2013.07.002",

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TY - JOUR

T1 - Circumstellar habitable zones for deep terrestrial biospheres

AU - McMahon, Sean Hendry

AU - O'Malley-James, Jack

AU - Parnell, John

N1 - SM and JOJ are grateful to the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) for Aurora Studentships. We thank Dr. Stephen Clifford (LPI), Dr. Ravi Kopparapu (Penn State), and Claire Davis (St. Andrews) for generous technical advice. We thank Norm Sleep and two anonymous reviewers for constructive reviews of the manuscript

PY - 2013/9/1

Y1 - 2013/9/1

N2 - The habitable zone (HZ) is conventionally the thin shell of space around a star within which liquid water is thermally stable on the surface of an Earth-like planet (Kasting et al., 1993). However, life on Earth is not restricted to the surface and includes a "deep biosphere" reaching several km in depth. Similarly, subsurface liquid water maintained by internal planetary heat could potentially support life well outside conventional HZs. We introduce a new term, subsurface-habitability zone (SSHZ) to denote the range of distances from a star within which rocky planets are habitable at any depth below their surfaces up to a stipulated maximum, and show how SSHZs can be estimated from a model relating temperature, depth and orbital distance. We present results for Earth-like, Mars-like and selected extrasolar terrestrial planets, and conclude that SSHZs are several times wider and include many more planets than conventional surface-based habitable zones. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

AB - The habitable zone (HZ) is conventionally the thin shell of space around a star within which liquid water is thermally stable on the surface of an Earth-like planet (Kasting et al., 1993). However, life on Earth is not restricted to the surface and includes a "deep biosphere" reaching several km in depth. Similarly, subsurface liquid water maintained by internal planetary heat could potentially support life well outside conventional HZs. We introduce a new term, subsurface-habitability zone (SSHZ) to denote the range of distances from a star within which rocky planets are habitable at any depth below their surfaces up to a stipulated maximum, and show how SSHZs can be estimated from a model relating temperature, depth and orbital distance. We present results for Earth-like, Mars-like and selected extrasolar terrestrial planets, and conclude that SSHZs are several times wider and include many more planets than conventional surface-based habitable zones. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

KW - habitable zones

KW - deep biosphere

KW - subsurface

KW - astrobiology

KW - exobiology

KW - extrasolar planets

KW - main-sequence stars

KW - Mars

KW - planets

KW - energy

KW - clouds

KW - earths

KW - life

U2 - 10.1016/j.pss.2013.07.002

DO - 10.1016/j.pss.2013.07.002

M3 - Article

VL - 85

SP - 312

EP - 318

JO - Planetary and space science

JF - Planetary and space science

SN - 0032-0633

ER -

Circumstellar habitable zones for deep terrestrial biospheres

Abstract

Keywords

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