ISSI Team – Lammer et al.: Evolution of
habitable planets
The present knowledge of the planetary population in our galaxy shows
that giant planets do exist fairly common outside our Solar System. A
research effort for the detection of Uranus-class and terrestrial
exoplanets after 2006 with COROT (CNES), Kepler (NASA), SIM (NASA) and
GAIA (ESA) is underway. A better understanding, under which
circumstances Earth-like planets can form and evolve biospheres, is
urgently needed in the preparation phase for ESA’s Darwin and NASA’s
TPF-C terrestrial planet finding missions. In this context, it is
important to introduce the concept of surface habitability, because
only an extended and productive biosphere can indirectly be detected by
these missions. For the detection of life outside our Solar System, one
has to consider planetary environments, where liquid water can sustain
stable over geologically long time periods inside the so-called
circumstellar habitable zone (HZ). An important question our team will
address is:
- which star-types (M, K, G, F) may be good, or preferred
candidates in the search for habitable planets?
A better understanding of planet formation processes is needed to
extrapolate from our present knowledge of the Solar System and known
exoplanets to other stellar types (M, K, G and F). The large majority
of stars close to our Sun fall in the lower mass domain (M, K) so that
a detailed interdisciplinary studies about the formation of biospheres
on terrestrial planets inside the HZs of dwarf stars is crucial
for terrestrial planet finding missions and the distribution of life in
the Universe. Low mass stars have closer orbital locations of their HZs
(0.02 – 0.7 AU), they are longer active in X-ray’s and EUV radiation,
and Earth-like exoplanets may be exposed much stronger by Coronal Mass
Ejections (CMEs) and stellar winds than at Sun-like stars in 1 AU.
Furthermore, Earth-like planets inside the HZs of these stars can be
partially or totally tidal-locked, which results in small magnetic
moments. Because, only stable atmospheres and water inventories over
long time-spans will allow the evolution of Earth-like biospheres our
team will focus on general questions like:
- the origin and frequency of terrestrial planets,
- water delivery and the role of giant planets in their formation
scenario,
- long-time orbital stability and dynamical evolution inside the HZ
in multiple planetary systems,
- whether a planet can keep its atmosphere and water inventory
inside the HZ long enough for life to evolve (thermal atmospheric loss,
atmospheric erosion by CMEs and stellar winds),
- effects of tidal-locking on the generation of magnetic moments,
plate tectonics, as well as climate models, to understand in which
conditions an atmosphere can exist and how it develops.
The main aim of our team is: to get a better understanding how
extra-solar system environments have to look-like, that terrestrial
planets can form and what are the main criteria related to various star
types that planets can keep a dense atmosphere and water inventory over
geologically long time periods. Further, the expected results of our
team will lead to a better understanding of planetary habitability in
general and build the basis for future studies, which focus on data
interpretations in the frame of comparative planetology after the first
Earth-like exoplanets will be discovered.
List of team members:
Helfried K. BIERNAT
Space Research Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Schmiedlstr. 6,
A-8042 Graz, Austria
E-mail: helfried.biernat@oeaw.ac.at
Eric BOIS
Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur, Laboratory Cassiopée, B.P.
4229, F-06304 Nice Cedex 04, France
E-mail: eric.bois@obs-nice.fr
Eric CHASSEFIÈRE
Service d'Aeronomie/ Pole de Planetologie de l'IPSL, Site de Jussieu,
Service d'Aeronomie, Universite P & M Curie, Aile 45-46, 4eme
etage, boite 102, 4 place Jussieu 75252 Paris Cedex 05, Fra
E-mail: eric.chassefiere@aero.jussieu.fr
Rudolf DVORAK
Institute for Astronomy, University of Vienna,
Türkenschanzstraße 17, A-1180 Vienna, Austria
E-mail: dvorak@astro.univie.ac.at
Nikolai V. ERKAEV
Institute of Computational Modelling, Siberian Division of Russian
Academy of Sciences, Akademgorodok, RU-660036 Krasnoyarsk, Russia
E-Mail: erkaev@icm.krasn.ru
Malcolm C. V. FRIDLUND
Astrophysics Division, ESTEC/ESA, P.O. Box 299, NL-2200AG Noordwijk,
The Netherlands
E-mail: malcolm.fridlund@esa.int
Francois FORGET
Institut Pierre Simon Laplace, Laboratoire de
Météorologie Dynamique, UMR 8539, Université Paris
6, BP 99, 4 place Jussieu, 75252 Paris cedex 05, France
E-mail: forget@lmd.jussieu.fr
Jean-Mathias GRIEßMEIER
Institute of Theoretical Physics, Technical University of Braunschweig,
Mendelssohnstr. 3, D-38106, Braunschweig, Germany
E-mail: j-m.griessmeier@tu-bs.de
Tristan Y. N. GUILLOT
Observatoire de la Cote d'Azur, CNRS / Laboratoire Cassini, B.P. 4229,
06304 Nice Cedex 4, France
E-mail: guillot@obs-nice.fr
James F. KASTING
State College, Penn State/Caltech, PA 16801 USA
E-mail: kasting@mcfeely.geosc.psu.edu
Helmut LAMMER
Space Research Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Schmiedlstr. 6,
A-8042 Graz, Austria
E-mail: helmut.lammer@oeaw.ac.at
Harold F. LEVISON
Southwest Research Institute, 1050 Walnut St, Suite 429 Boulder, CO
80302, USA
hal@boulder.swri.edu
Jonathan I. LUNINE
Lunar and Planetary Lab, 1629 E. University Blvd., Tucson, AZ
85721-0092, USA
E-mail: jlunine@lpl.arizona.edu
Alessandro MORBIDELLI
Observatoire de la Cote d'Azur, Nice, B.P. 4229, F-06304 Nice Cedex 4,
France
E-mail: morby@obs-nice.fr
Ignasi RIBAS
Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya/CSIC, C/Gran Capità,
2-4, Edif. Nexus, E-08034 Barcelona, Spain
E-mail: iribas@ieec.fcr.es
Franck SELSIS
Centre de Recherche en Astrophysique de Lyon (CRAL), and Ecole Normale
Supérieure (ENS) 46, Allée d'Italie, F-69364 Lyon cedex
7, France
E-mail: franck.selsis@ens-lyon.fr
Werner von BLOH
Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), P.O. Box 60 12 03,
Telegrafenberg, building A31, D-14412 Potsdam, Germany
E-mail: bloh@pik-potsdam.de
Günther WUCHTERL
Astrophysikalisches Institut und Universitäts-Sternwarte,
Schillergäßchen 2-3, D-07745 Jena , Germany
E-mail: wuchterl@astro.uni-jena.de
E-mail list in alphabetical order of the team members listed above
helfried.biernat@oeaw.ac.at
eric.bois@obs.u-bordeaux1.fr
eric.chassefiere@aero.jussieu.fr
dvorak@astro.univie.ac.at
erkaev@icm.krasn.ru
malcolm.fridlund@esa.int
forget@lmd.jussieu.fr
j-m.griessmeier@tu-bs.de
guillot@obs-nice.fr
kasting@mcfeely.geosc.psu.edu
helmut.lammer@oeaw.ac.at
hal@boulder.swri.edu
jlunine@lpl.arizona.edu
morby@obs-nice.fr
iribas@ieec.fcr.es
selsis@obs.u-bordeaux1.fr
bloh@pik-potsdam.de
wuchterl@astro.uni-jena.de
Restricted Area for team members only
Links
COROT
http://smsc.cnes.fr/COROT/index.htm
Kepler
http://www.kepler.arc.nasa.gov/
TPF
http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/TPF/tpf_index.html
Darwin
http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/area/index.cfm?fareaid=28