Solar System Stability and the Likelihood of Earth-like Planets

2007 ◽  
pp. 141-162
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
System Stability ◽  
Earth Like Planets

scholarly journals Chances for Earth-Like Planets and Life Around Metal-Poor Stars

2004 ◽  
Vol 213 ◽  
pp. 45-50
Author(s):  
Hans Zinnecker
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Early Universe ◽  
Galactic Halo ◽  
Magellanic Clouds ◽  
Heavy Elements ◽  
Terrestrial Planets ◽  
Lower Mass ◽  
Solar Metallicity ◽  
Earth Like Planets ◽  
The Universe

We discuss the difficulties of forming earth-like planets in metal-poor environments, such as those prevailing in the Galactic halo (Pop II), the Magellanic Clouds, and the early universe. We suggest that, with fewer heavy elements available, terrestrial planets will be smaller size and lower mass than in our solar system (solar metallicity). Such planets may not be able to sustain life as we know it. Therefore, the chances of very old lifeforms in the universe are slim, and a threshold metallicty (90% solar?) may exist for life to originate on large enough earth-like planets.

Habitable zone for Earth-like planets in the solar system

2000 ◽  
Vol 48 (11) ◽  
pp. 1099-1105 ◽  
Author(s):  
S Franck ◽  
A Block ◽  
W von Bloh ◽  
C Bounama ◽  
H.-J Schellnhuber ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Habitable Zone ◽  
Earth Like Planets

scholarly journals Editorial

2005 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anja C. Anderson ◽  
Axel Brandenburg
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Artificial Life ◽  
The Other ◽  
Extreme Conditions ◽  
The Public ◽  
The World ◽  
Earth Like Planets ◽  
The One ◽  
Astronomy And Astrophysics ◽  
Broad Interest

Astrobiology harbours a number of rather diverse disciplines combining expertise in astronomy and astrophysics, biophysics and biology, chemistry and biochemistry, geophysics and geology, as well as mathematics. The need to foster advances in astrobiology are two-fold. On the one hand, there are many scientific reasons: the discoveries of extra-solar planets which contribute to our understanding of the Solar System and the formation of Earth-like planets, the realization that life can thrive under rather extreme conditions making it more probable for life to exist elsewhere in the Solar System and beyond, and the fact that major resources are being spent in developing the technology to produce artificial life, which helps us to appreciate the range of possibilities that nature may have utilized on Earth or elsewhere. On the other hand, astrobiology touches upon some fundamental questions regarding our very existence, and it is perhaps this that attracts the broad interest of scientists and the public alike. As a result, astrobiology networks and astrobiology centres have been emerging all over the world.

scholarly journals Terrestrial Planet Formation: The Solar System and Other Systems

2004 ◽  
Vol 202 ◽  
pp. 159-166
Author(s):  
Shigeru Ida ◽  
Eiichiro Kokubo
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Final Stage ◽  
Extrasolar Planets ◽  
Planet Formation ◽  
Terrestrial Planet ◽  
The Other ◽  
Terrestrial Planets ◽  
Giant Impacts ◽  
Earth Like Planets ◽  
Jovian Planet

Accretion of terrestrial planets and solid cores of jovian planets is discussed, based on the results of our N-body simulations. Protoplanets accrete from planetesimals through runaway and oligarchic growth until they become isolated. The isolation mass of protoplanets in terrestrial planet region is about 0.2 Earth mass, which suggests that in the final stage of terrestrial planet formation giant impacts between the protoplanets occur. On the other hand, the isolation mass in jovian planet region is about a few to 10 Earth masses, which may be massive enough to form a gas giant. Extending the above arguments to disks with various initial masses, we discuss diversity of planetary systems. We predict that the extrasolar planets so far discovered may correspond to the systems formed from disks with large initial masses and that the other disks with smaller masses, which are the majority of the disks, may form Earth-like planets.

scholarly journals The science of EChO

2010 ◽  
Vol 6 (S276) ◽  
pp. 359-370 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giovanna Tinetti ◽  
James Y-K. Cho ◽  
Caitlin A. Griffith ◽  
Olivier Grasset ◽  
Lee Grenfell ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Emission Spectroscopy ◽  
European Space Agency ◽  
Habitable Zone ◽  
The Past ◽  
Space Agency ◽  
Kepler Mission ◽  
The Galaxy ◽  
Earth Like Planets ◽  
Exoplanetary Atmospheres

AbstractThe science of extra-solar planets is one of the most rapidly changing areas of astrophysics and since 1995 the number of planets known has increased by almost two orders of magnitude. A combination of ground-based surveys and dedicated space missions has resulted in 560-plus planets being detected, and over 1200 that await confirmation. NASA's Kepler mission has opened up the possibility of discovering Earth-like planets in the habitable zone around some of the 100,000 stars it is surveying during its 3 to 4-year lifetime. The new ESA's Gaia mission is expected to discover thousands of new planets around stars within 200 parsecs of the Sun. The key challenge now is moving on from discovery, important though that remains, to characterisation: what are these planets actually like, and why are they as they are?In the past ten years, we have learned how to obtain the first spectra of exoplanets using transit transmission and emission spectroscopy. With the high stability of Spitzer, Hubble, and large ground-based telescopes the spectra of bright close-in massive planets can be obtained and species like water vapour, methane, carbon monoxide and dioxide have been detected. With transit science came the first tangible remote sensing of these planetary bodies and so one can start to extrapolate from what has been learnt from Solar System probes to what one might plan to learn about their faraway siblings. As we learn more about the atmospheres, surfaces and near-surfaces of these remote bodies, we will begin to build up a clearer picture of their construction, history and suitability for life.The Exoplanet Characterisation Observatory, EChO, will be the first dedicated mission to investigate the physics and chemistry of Exoplanetary Atmospheres. By characterising spectroscopically more bodies in different environments we will take detailed planetology out of the Solar System and into the Galaxy as a whole.EChO has now been selected by the European Space Agency to be assessed as one of four M3 mission candidates.

scholarly journals Scenarios of giant planet formation and evolution and their impact on the formation of habitable terrestrial planets

2014 ◽  
Vol 372 (2014) ◽  
pp. 20130072 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandro Morbidelli
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Giant Planet ◽  
Giant Planets ◽  
Terrestrial Planets ◽  
Evolutionary Patterns ◽  
Eccentric Orbits ◽  
Earth Like Planets ◽  
Large Eccentricity ◽  
Formation And Evolution ◽  
Orbital Instability

In our Solar System, there is a clear divide between the terrestrial and giant planets. These two categories of planets formed and evolved separately, almost in isolation from each other. This was possible because Jupiter avoided migrating into the inner Solar System, most probably due to the presence of Saturn, and never acquired a large-eccentricity orbit, even during the phase of orbital instability that the giant planets most likely experienced. Thus, the Earth formed on a time scale of several tens of millions of years, by collision of Moon- to Mars-mass planetary embryos, in a gas-free and volatile-depleted environment. We do not expect, however, that this clear cleavage between the giant and terrestrial planets is generic. In many extrasolar planetary systems discovered to date, the giant planets migrated into the vicinity of the parent star and/or acquired eccentric orbits. In this way, the evolution and destiny of the giant and terrestrial planets become intimately linked. This paper discusses several evolutionary patterns for the giant planets, with an emphasis on the consequences for the formation and survival of habitable terrestrial planets. The conclusion is that we should not expect Earth-like planets to be typical in terms of physical and orbital properties and accretion history. Most habitable worlds are probably different, exotic worlds.

scholarly journals On secular resonances of small bodies in the planetary systems

2006 ◽  
Vol 2 (S236) ◽  
pp. 77-84
Author(s):  
Jianghui Ji ◽  
L. Liu ◽  
G. Y. Li
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Planetary System ◽  
Planetary Systems ◽  
Giant Planets ◽  
Small Bodies ◽  
Secular Resonances ◽  
Mean Motion Resonances ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Habitable Zones ◽  
Earth Like Planets

AbstractWe investigate the secular resonances for massless small bodies and Earth-like planets in several planetary systems. We further compare the results with those of Solar System. For example, in the GJ 876 planetary system, we show that the secular resonances ν1 and ν2 (respectively, resulting from the inner and outer giant planets) can excite the eccentricities of the Earth-like planets with orbits 0.21≤ a <0.50 AU and eject them out of the system in a short timescale. However, in a dynamical sense, the potential zones for the existence of Earth-like planets are in the area 0.50≤ a ≤1.00 AU, and there exist all stable orbits last up to 105 yr with low eccentricities. For other systems, e.g., 47 UMa, we also show that the Habitable Zones for Earth-like planets are related to both secular resonances and mean motion resonances in the systems.

Celestial mechanics: Testing Solar System stability

Nature ◽  
1986 ◽  
Vol 319 (6052) ◽  
pp. 359-360 ◽  
Author(s):  
P.J. Message
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Celestial Mechanics ◽  
System Stability
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