UV surface environment of Earth-like planets orbiting FGKM stars through geological evolution
Abstract
The UV environment of a host star affects the photochemistry in the atmosphere, and ultimately the surface UV environment for terrestrial planets and therefore the conditions for the origin and evolution of life. We model the surface UV radiation environment for Earth-sized planets orbiting FGKM stars in the circumstellar Habitable Zone for Earth through its geological evolution. We explore four different types of atmospheres corresponding to an early-Earth atmosphere at 3.9 Gyr ago and three atmospheres covering the rise of oxygen to present-day levels at 2.0 Gyr ago, 0.8 Gyr ago, and modern Earth. In addition to calculating the UV flux on the surface of the planet, we model the biologically effective irradiance, using DNA damage as a proxy for biological damage. We find that a pre-biotic Earth (3.9 Gyr ago) orbiting an F0V star receives 6 times the biologically effective radiation as around the early Sun and 3520 times the modern Earth-Sun levels. A pre-biotic Earth orbiting GJ 581 (M3.5 V) receives 300 times less biologically effective radiation, about 2 times modern Earth-Sun levels. The UV fluxes calculated here provide a grid of model UV environments during the evolution of an Earth-like planet orbiting a range of stars. These models can be used as inputs into photo-biological experiments and for pre-biotic chemistry and early life evolution experiments.
Citation
Rugheimer , S , Segura , A , Kaltenegger , L & Sasselov , D 2015 , ' UV surface environment of Earth-like planets orbiting FGKM stars through geological evolution ' , Astrophysical Journal , vol. 806 , no. 1 , 137 . https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/806/1/137
Publication
Astrophysical Journal
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
0004-637XType
Journal article
Rights
© 2015. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. This work has been made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. This is the final published version of the work, which was originally published at https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/806/1/137
Description
The authors would also like to acknowledge support from DFG funding ENP KA 3142/1-1 and the Simons Foundation (290357, Kaltenegger and 290360, Sasselov).Collections
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