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Tides And The Evolution Of Planetary Habitability, Rory Barnes, Sean N. Raymond, Brian Jackson, Richard Greenberg
Tides And The Evolution Of Planetary Habitability, Rory Barnes, Sean N. Raymond, Brian Jackson, Richard Greenberg
Brian Jackson
Tides raised on a planet by the gravity of its host star can reduce the planet's orbital semi-major axis and eccentricity. This effect is only relevant for planets orbiting very close to their host stars. The habitable zones of low-mass stars are also close in, and tides can alter the orbits of planets in these locations. We calculate the tidal evolution of hypothetical terrestrial planets around low-mass stars and show that tides can evolve planets past the inner edge of the habitable zone, sometimes in less than 1 billion years. This migration requires large eccentricities (>0.5) and low-mass stars …