Geophysical and atmospheric evolution of habitable planets

Helmut Lammer*, Frank Selsis, Eric Chassefière, Doris Breuer, Jean Mathias Grießmeier, Yuri N. Kulikov, Nikolai V. Erkaev, Maxim L. Khodachenko, Helfried K. Biernat, Francois Leblanc, Esa Kallio, Richard Lundin, Frances Westall, Siegfried J. Bauer, Charles Beichman, William Danchi, Carlos Eiroa, Malcolm Fridlund, Hannes Gröller, Arnold HanslmeierWalter Hausleitner, Thomas Henning, Tom Herbst, Lisa Kaltenegger, Alain Léger, Martin Leitzinger, Herbert I.M. Lichtenegger, René Liseau, Jonathan Lunine, Uwe Motschmann, Petra Odert, Francesco Paresce, John Parnell, Alan Penny, Andreas Quirrenbach, Heike Rauer, Huub Röttgering, Jean Schneider, Tilman Spohn, Anja Stadelmann, Günter Stangl, Daphne Stam, Giovanna Tinetti, Glenn J. White

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

46 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The evolution of Earth-like habitable planets is a complex process that depends on the geodynamical and geophysical environments. In particular, it is necessary that plate tectonics remain active over billions of years. These geophysically active environments are strongly coupled to a planet's host star parameters, such as mass, luminosity and activity, orbit location of the habitable zone, and the planet's initial water inventory. Depending on the host star's radiation and particle flux evolution, the composition in the thermosphere, and the availability of an active magnetic dynamo, the atmospheres of Earth-like planets within their habitable zones are differently affected due to thermal and nonthermal escape processes. For some planets, strong atmospheric escape could even effect the stability of the atmosphere.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)45-68
Number of pages24
JournalAstrobiology
Volume10
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2010

Keywords

  • Atmosphere evolution
  • Geophysics
  • Habitability
  • Terrestrial planets

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