Notice: This is an archived and unmaintained page. For current information, please browse astrobiology.nasa.gov.
NAI
NASA: National Aeronautics and Space Administration

nai
You are here: Home ยป Articles

  1. An Inner Edge for Habitable Planets around Low-Mass Stars

    Research Highlights
    May 09, 2016 / Written by: Aaron Gronstal
    Our sun has a temperature of about 5800K. For stars cooler than our sun (M dwarfs at 3000-4000K) the habitable zone is closer in. For hotter stars (A dwarfs at 10,000K) the region is much farther out. Image credit: NASA
    Our sun has a temperature of about 5800K. For stars cooler than our sun (M dwarfs at 3000-4000K) the habitable zone is closer in. For hotter stars (A dwarfs at 10,000K) the region is much farther out.

    Researchers have provided new estimates for the inner edge of the habitable zone for synchronously rotating terrestrial planets around late-K and M-dwarf stars. Using a 3-D Earth-analog global climate model (GCM), the team has shed new light on the relationship between the rotational rates of planets and habitability around these types of stars. The results indicate that rotation rates for planets at the inner edge of the habitable zone become faster and that the inner edge is farther away from the host star than indicated in previous GCM studies.

    The paper, “The inner edge of the habitable zone for synchronously rotating planets around low-mass stars using general circulation models,” was published in the journal Earth and Planetary Astrophysics. The research was supported by the NASA Astrobiology Institute element of the NASA Astrobiology Program.

    Source: [Earth and Planetary Astrophysics]

FAQ
NEXT ARTICLE > < PREV ARTICLE