The Impact of Stellar Abundance Variations on Stellar Habitable Zone Evolution

The high quality spectra required for radial velocity planet searches are well-suited to providing abundances for a wide array of elements in large samples of stars. Abundance ratios of the most common elements relative to Fe are observed to vary by more than a factor of two in planet host candidates. This level of variation has a substantial impact on the evolution of the host star and the extent of its habitable zone.

We present stellar models of 1 solar mass stars with custom compositions representing the full range of these non-solar abundance ratios. We find that the effects derived from variation over the observed range of [O/Fe] are particularly dramatic. Habitability lifetimes for some classes of orbits can vary by gigayears for the observed range in [O/Fe].

Patrick A. Young, Kelley Liebst, Michael Pagano
(Submitted on 19 Jul 2012)

Comments: 3 figures, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letters
Subjects: Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR); Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP)
Cite as: arXiv:1207.4755v1 [astro-ph.SR]
Submission history
From: Patrick A. Young [view email]
[v1] Thu, 19 Jul 2012 18:41:42 GMT (361kb)