Exoplanets beyond the Conservative Habitable Zone: I. Habitability

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Author: Wandel, Amri
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Wandel, Amri
author_facet Wandel, Amri
contents The Habitable Zone (HZ) is defined by the possibility of sustaining liquid water on a planetary surface. In the Solar System, the HZ for a conservative climate model extends approximately between the orbits of Earth and Mars. We elaborate on earlier HZ models and apply an analytical climate model of the temperature distribution on tidally-locked planets to extend the HZ. We show that planets orbiting M- and K-dwarf stars may maintain liquid water on their night side, significantly closer to their host star than the inner border of the conservative HZ. We calculate the extended borders of the HZ in the flux-effective temperature diagram. This extension may explain the presence of water vapor and other volatile gases in the transmission spectra of warm Super-Earth-sized exoplanets closely orbiting M dwarfs, recently detected by JWST. We also mention the HZ extension outwards, due to subglacial liquid water in the form of intra-glacial lakes or subglacial melting.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_00736
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Exoplanets beyond the Conservative Habitable Zone: I. Habitability
Wandel, Amri
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
The Habitable Zone (HZ) is defined by the possibility of sustaining liquid water on a planetary surface. In the Solar System, the HZ for a conservative climate model extends approximately between the orbits of Earth and Mars. We elaborate on earlier HZ models and apply an analytical climate model of the temperature distribution on tidally-locked planets to extend the HZ. We show that planets orbiting M- and K-dwarf stars may maintain liquid water on their night side, significantly closer to their host star than the inner border of the conservative HZ. We calculate the extended borders of the HZ in the flux-effective temperature diagram. This extension may explain the presence of water vapor and other volatile gases in the transmission spectra of warm Super-Earth-sized exoplanets closely orbiting M dwarfs, recently detected by JWST. We also mention the HZ extension outwards, due to subglacial liquid water in the form of intra-glacial lakes or subglacial melting.
title Exoplanets beyond the Conservative Habitable Zone: I. Habitability
topic Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.00736