Impact flux of asteroids and water transport to the habitable zone in binary star systems

TL;DR

This paper investigates how asteroid impacts and water delivery to habitable zones differ in binary star systems compared to single star systems, considering planetary motion and system parameters.

Contribution

It provides a comparative analysis of water transport mechanisms in binary versus single star systems, highlighting the influence of stellar and planetary architecture.

Findings

Water transport efficiency varies with binary system parameters.

Binary systems can facilitate or hinder water delivery to habitable zones.

Impacts and water fluxes are significantly affected by stellar separation and eccentricity.

Abstract

By now, observations of exoplanets have found more than 50 binary star systems hosting 71 planets. We expect these numbers to increase as more than 70% of the main sequence stars in the solar neighborhood are members of binary or multiple systems. The planetary motion in such systems depends strongly on both the parameters of the stellar system (stellar separation and eccentricity) and the architecture of the planetary system (number of planets and their orbital behaviour). In case a terrestrial planet moves in the so-called habitable zone (HZ) of its host star, the habitability of this planet depends on many parameters. A crucial factor is certainly the amount of water. We investigate in this work the transport of water from beyond the snow-line to the HZ in a binary star system and compare it to a single star system.