The Response of Planetary Atmospheres to the Impact of Icy Comets II: exo-Earth Analogues

TL;DR

This study models how Earth-like exoplanet atmospheres respond to icy comet impacts, revealing that atmospheric circulation influences impact effects and potential habitability, with implications for observing such events.

Contribution

It introduces a coupled impact and climate model for Earth-analog exoplanets, highlighting the role of atmospheric circulation in impact response and habitability.

Findings

Atmospheric circulation regime shapes impact response.

Horizontal mixing limits water transport and chemical changes.

Small compositional changes persist, affecting habitability.

Abstract

The orbital regime of a terrestrial planet plays a significant role in shaping its atmospheric dynamics, climate, and hence potential habitability. The orbit is also likely to play a role in shaping the response of a planetary atmosphere to the influx of material from an icy cometary impact. To investigate this response, we model the impact of an icy cometary body with an Earth-analogue exoplanet (i.e. an Earth-like planet orbiting a Sun-like star with a diurnal cycle) using a cometary impact and breakup model coupled with the 3D Earth-System-Model WACCM6/CESM2. To quantify the role that the atmospheric dynamics play in setting the response to a cometary impact, we compare our results with a previous study investigating an impact with a tidally-locked terrestrial exoplanet. We find that the circulation regime of the planet plays a key role in shaping the response of the atmosphere to an icy cometary impact. The weak, multi-celled circulation structure that forms on Earth-like planets is efficient at mixing material horizontally but not vertically, limiting the transport of water from the deep break-up site to higher altitudes. In turn, this limits the rate of water photodissociation at low pressures, reducing the magnitude of post-impact changes to composition. It also reduces the potential observability of an impact due to weakened cloud ice formation, and hence scattering, at low pressures. Despite this, small changes to the overall composition of the planet persist to quasi-steady-state, reinforcing the idea that ongoing bombardment may help to shape the composition/habitability of terrestrial worlds.