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Constraints of habitability for the young Earth in a highly eccentric orbit

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 January 2020

Elke Pilat-Lohinger
Affiliation:
Dept. of Astrophysics, University of ViennaTürkenschanzstrasse 17, A-1180 Wien, Austria emails: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
Kristina G. Kislyakova
Affiliation:
Dept. of Astrophysics, University of ViennaTürkenschanzstrasse 17, A-1180 Wien, Austria emails: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] Space Research Institute, Austrian Academy of Science Schmiedlstrasse 6, 8042 Graz, Austria email: [email protected]
Helmut Lammer
Affiliation:
Space Research Institute, Austrian Academy of Science Schmiedlstrasse 6, 8042 Graz, Austria email: [email protected]
Colin P. Johnstone
Affiliation:
Dept. of Astrophysics, University of ViennaTürkenschanzstrasse 17, A-1180 Wien, Austria emails: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
David Bancelin
Affiliation:
Dept. of Astrophysics, University of ViennaTürkenschanzstrasse 17, A-1180 Wien, Austria emails: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
Ákos Bazsó
Affiliation:
Dept. of Astrophysics, University of ViennaTürkenschanzstrasse 17, A-1180 Wien, Austria emails: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
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Abstract

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Thousands of planets outside the Solar system have been discovered, with exoplanets in different environments. Since we cannot expect to find an exoplanetary system fully resembling our Solar System, we consider a Solar System type configuration where the Earth moves in an eccentric orbit. We focus on young Earth 1 billion years ago, when the Sun’s extreme UV (EUV) flux was about 5 times higher than the current radiation. In case of eccentric motion of Earth, strong variations of the EUV flux would influence the evolution of the planet’s atmosphere (EUV radiation of 50 times the current EUV flux would be possible). Taking into account a certain amount of Nitrogen in the atmosphere of such a young Earth, we study the non-thermal loss of N2 over a long time interval. We therefore investigate to what extent eccentric motion will influence the conditions of habitability of a terrestrial planet.

Type
Contributed Papers
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© International Astronomical Union 2020

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