Challenges with habitability around M-Dwarfs and the case for external giant planets

by Dr Matt Clement (Carnegie Institution)

Wednesday 15 Sept 2021, 21:00 → 22:00 Asia/Shanghai

ONLINE

Abstract

In recent years a paradigm shift has occurred in exoplanet science, wherein low-mass stars are increasingly viewed as a foundational pillar of the search for potentially habitable worlds in the solar neighborhood. However, the processes that led to the formation of this rapidly accumulating sample of systems are still poorly understood. Moreover, it is unclear whether tenuous primordial atmospheres around these Earth-analogs could have survived the intense epoch of heightened stellar activity that is typical for low-mass stars. I will summarize our understanding of rocky planet formation and volatile delivery in the solar system, and how these ideas extend to the low-mass regime. I will then present results from new simulations of in-situ planet formation across the M-dwarf mass spectrum. From these calculations, we derive leftover debris populations of small bodies that might source delayed volatile delivery. We then follow the evolution of this debris with high-resolution models of real systems of habitable zone planets around low-mass stars such as TRAPPIST-1. While debris in the radial vicinity of the habitable zone planets is removed rapidly, we find that material scattered into exo-asteroid belt regions during the planet formation process represents a potentially vital source of delayed volatile delivery, provided the systems' also host the external giant planets that are essential for perturbing the material onto habitable zone crossing orbits. However, we also find that such giant planets significantly limit the efficiency of asteroidal implantation during the planet formation process.

Biography

I am an astrophysicist and planetary scientist at the Carnegie Institution for Science's Earth and Planets Laboratory (EPL) in Washington D.C. (formerly Carnegie DTM).  I attended graduate school at the University of Oklahoma, where I worked with professor Nate Kaib.  During graduate school I also spent a semester Bordeaux, France working with CNRS scientist Sean Raymond as part of the Chateaubriand Fellowship program.  My research interests include the formation and dynamical evolution of planetary systems.  In particular, I utilize N-body simulations to study the early evolution of the solar system.  While much of my past research has been focused on the formation of the solar system’s terrestrial planets, I have recently become interested in habitability around low-mass stars.

Chair

Fabo Feng

Division

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Other information

Zoom Meeting Link:

主题：Seminar by Dr. Matt Clement

时间：2021年9月15日 09:00 下午 北京，上海

 

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