[world building] How gas giants affect habitability

[Malenfant]

http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0603200
( http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0503178 and http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0312522 are also useful related papers, downloadable for free as PDFs there).

Rather interesting paper for any world builders out there. Among other things it basically tells you how big a gas giant's 'zone of influence' can be so you can tell if a terrestrial world interior or exterior to it is flung out of the system or not.

The paper seems to assume that the terrestrial world is flung out of the system or hits the jovian if it starts off in the jovian's region of influence - I don't think it has anything in it that defines a further volume of space in which planetary formation is hindered by the jovian's presence so only asteroid belts can form there. Still, it's definitely a useful paper as is.

[maxim]

Which kind of sientific divisions do those researches.
Yes, they're astronomers obviously, but this seems to be rather specialised for 'common' astronomy. Do astronomers subdivide meanwhile?

I also wonder how stable and detailed the models are that they use for calculations. I would be surprised if they are already better than rought.

But I may miss recend developements.

maxim

[Malenfant]

Which kind of sientific divisions do those researches.
Yes, they're astronomers obviously, but this seems to be rather specialised for 'common' astronomy. Do astronomers subdivide meanwhile?

What an odd question. Of course they're specialised, just like any other science field - they're probably astrophysicists specialising in orbital dynamics and planetary formation. Actual "astronomers" are usually the ones making the measurements and gathering/processing the data - it's the astrophysicists that really do the modelling and interpretation of the data that they gather.

I also wonder how stable and detailed the models are that they use for calculations. I would be surprised if they are already better than rought.

Wow, what a way to slag off years of someone's research . Maybe they're not 100% realistic but I think they're far better than "rough".

[maxim]

Which kind of sientific divisions do those researches.
Yes, they're astronomers obviously, but this seems to be rather specialised for 'common' astronomy. Do astronomers subdivide meanwhile?

What an odd question.

Well, not sooo odd. I'm not deep in the subject. Most would think, 'well astrophysicians, these are those who keep the ISS and the Hubble up, or otherwise they are discussing black holes and pulsars'.

I wasn't aware that such specialized fields of research already exists.

I also wonder how stable and detailed the models are that they use for calculations. I would be surprised if they are already better than rought.

Wow, what a way to slag off years of someone's research . Maybe they're not 100% realistic but I think they're far better than "rough".

The first exoplanets had been discovered in the nineties. Thats not so far back. I'm astonished about the speed of research.

maxim

[Malenfant]

The first exoplanets had been discovered in the nineties. Thats not so far back. I'm astonished about the speed of research.

Most of the physical background was there already - it was just a case of applying it to the new discoveries.

[eburacum45]

Interesting reading; it points out for instance that Earth-like planets are unlikely at Epsilon Eridani, Upsilon Andromedae and Gliese 876.

This conclusion doesn't nessarily rule out Earth-like Moons, however.
A useful list for worldbuilders; thank you.

[ajtribick]

Upsilon Andromedae is a good candidate for Earth-like moons however: the system has an ultraviolet habitable zone which overlaps with the water habitable zone, and planet d lies in both.

On the other hand, a planet in 55 Cancri's water zone may not receive enough ultraviolet to drive biochemistry.

Note that the paper seems to have switched the designations of Ups And c and d.

However, I'm slightly suspicious of the "life=DNA" mentality behind the paper, and also Titan seems to have rather interesting photochemistry even though it lies well outside Sol's UV habitable zone...