Parker, R. and Wootton, B. (2019) Enlarging habitable zones around binary stars in hostile environments. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters, 485 (1). L48-L52. ISSN 1745-3925
Abstract
Habitable zones are regions around stars where large bodies of liquid water can be sustained on a planet or satellite. As many stars form in binary systems with non-zero eccentricity, the habitable zones around the component stars of the binary can overlap and be enlarged when the two stars are at periastron (and less often when the stars are at apastron). We perform N-body simulations of the evolution of dense star-forming regions and show that binary systems where the component stars originally have distinct habitable zones can undergo interactions that push the stars closer together, causing the habitable zones to merge and become enlarged. Occasionally, overlapping habitable zones can occur if the component stars move further apart, but the binary becomes more eccentric. Enlargement of habitable zones happens to one to two binaries from an average initial total of 352 in each simulated star-forming region, and demonstrates that dense star-forming regions are not always hostile environments for planet formation and evolution.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2019 The Author(s). Reproduced in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | Astrobiology; methods: numerical; planets and satellites: dynamical evolution and stability; binaries: general; stars: kinematics and dynamics; open clusters and associations: general |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > Department of Physics and Astronomy (Sheffield) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number ROYAL SOCIETY DH150108 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 13 Mar 2019 09:29 |
Last Modified: | 13 Mar 2019 14:04 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Oxford University Press |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1093/mnrasl/sly238 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:143563 |