The Habitability of Proxima Centauri b: Environmental States and Observational Discriminants.

ABSTRACT: Proxima Centauri b provides an unprecedented opportunity to understand the evolution and nature of terrestrial planets orbiting M dwarfs. Although Proxima Cen b orbits within its star's habitable zone, multiple plausible evolutionary paths could have generated different environments that may or may not be habitable. Here, we use 1-D coupled climate-photochemical models to generate self-consistent atmospheres for several evolutionary scenarios, including high-O₂, high-CO₂, and more Earth-like atmospheres, with both oxic and anoxic compositions. We show that these modeled environments can be habitable or uninhabitable at Proxima Cen b's position in the habitable zone. We use radiative transfer models to generate synthetic spectra and thermal phase curves for these simul

SUBMITTER: Meadows VS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5820795 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature