Atmospheric Collapse and Habitability on Tidally-Locked Exoplanets

TL;DR

This study uses a 3D climate model to explore how atmospheric collapse affects surface liquid water on tidally-locked exoplanets, revealing that collapse might actually help sustain habitability despite reducing greenhouse effects.

Contribution

It demonstrates, through climate modeling, that atmospheric collapse can paradoxically support surface liquid water on tidally-locked exoplanets, challenging previous assumptions.

Findings

Atmospheric collapse can persist alongside surface liquid water.

Loss of CO2 weakens greenhouse effect and heat redistribution.

Collapse may positively influence planetary habitability.

Abstract

The habitability of terrestrial exoplanets orbiting M dwarfs is a key topic in the search for extraterrestrial life. The climates of these planets differ significantly from the Earth's due to their likely tidal locking, resulting in a hotter dayside and a colder nightside caused by uneven stellar irradiation. On tidally-locked planets around the outer edge of the habitable zone (HZ), although the definition of the classical HZ requires thick CO2 atmosphere, CO2 can condense onto the surface, leading to the reduction of greenhouse effect. However, the dayside permanent stellar irradiation could maintain a surface liquid water area. The onset of atmospheric collapse and the persistence of surface liquid water are governed by global heat redistribution which is influenced by factors such as atmospheric mass, stellar irradiation, and greenhouse effects. In this study, we used a three-dimensional global climate model to investigate the impact of atmospheric collapse on the presence of dayside surface liquid water. Our results indicate that surface liquid water could counter-intuitively persist despite atmospheric collapse. This is because the loss of atmospheric CO2 weakens not only the greenhouse effect but also daynight heat transport, leading to less redistribution of the energy of dayside insolation to the nightside. While atmospheric collapse is typically seen as an obstacle to maintaining a habitable climate, our findings suggest that it could play a positive role in sustaining surface liquid water on tidally-locked planets. Our work provides new light into the relationship between atmospheric collapse and planetary habitability.