Tidal evolution of Earth-like planets in the habitable zone of low-mass stars

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Auteurs principaux: Valente, E. F. S., Correia, A. C. M., Auclair-Desrotour, P., Farhat, M., Laskar, J.
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2024
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author Valente, E. F. S.
Correia, A. C. M.
Auclair-Desrotour, P.
Farhat, M.
Laskar, J.
author_facet Valente, E. F. S.
Correia, A. C. M.
Auclair-Desrotour, P.
Farhat, M.
Laskar, J.
contents Earth-like planets in the habitable zone of low-mass stars undergo strong tidal effects that modify their spin states. These planets are expected to host dense atmospheres that can also play an important role in the spin evolution. On one hand, gravitational tides tend to synchronise the rotation with the orbital mean motion, but on the other hand, thermal atmospheric tides push the rotation away and may lead to asynchronous equilibria. Here, we investigate the complete tidal evolution of Earth-like planets by taking into account the effect of obliquity and eccentric orbits. We adopted an Andrade rheology for the gravitational tides and benchmarked the unknown parameters with the present rotation of Venus. We then applied our model to Earth-like planets, and we show that asynchronous rotation can be expected for planets orbiting stars with masses between 0.4 and 0.9 $M_\odot$ and semi-major axes between 0.2 and 0.7 au. Interestingly, we find that Earth-like planets in the habitable zone of stars with masses $\sim 0.8$ $M_\odot$ may end up with an equilibrium rotation of 24 hours. We additionally find that these planets can also develop high obliquities, which may help sustain temperate environments.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2410_00739
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Tidal evolution of Earth-like planets in the habitable zone of low-mass stars
Valente, E. F. S.
Correia, A. C. M.
Auclair-Desrotour, P.
Farhat, M.
Laskar, J.
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics
Earth-like planets in the habitable zone of low-mass stars undergo strong tidal effects that modify their spin states. These planets are expected to host dense atmospheres that can also play an important role in the spin evolution. On one hand, gravitational tides tend to synchronise the rotation with the orbital mean motion, but on the other hand, thermal atmospheric tides push the rotation away and may lead to asynchronous equilibria. Here, we investigate the complete tidal evolution of Earth-like planets by taking into account the effect of obliquity and eccentric orbits. We adopted an Andrade rheology for the gravitational tides and benchmarked the unknown parameters with the present rotation of Venus. We then applied our model to Earth-like planets, and we show that asynchronous rotation can be expected for planets orbiting stars with masses between 0.4 and 0.9 $M_\odot$ and semi-major axes between 0.2 and 0.7 au. Interestingly, we find that Earth-like planets in the habitable zone of stars with masses $\sim 0.8$ $M_\odot$ may end up with an equilibrium rotation of 24 hours. We additionally find that these planets can also develop high obliquities, which may help sustain temperate environments.
title Tidal evolution of Earth-like planets in the habitable zone of low-mass stars
topic Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.00739