2020/12/01 by Owen Lehmer, Owen R. Lehmer, David C. Catling +2 · 51 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astro and Planetary Science #Astrobiology #Astronomy #Atmosphere (unit) #Atmospheric sciences #Carbon cycle #Carbonate #Earth (classical element) #Ecosystem #Environmental science #Exoplanet #Flux (metallurgy) #Geology #Geomorphology #Materials science #Meteorology #Outgassing #Physics #Planet #Scientific Research and Discoveries #Silicate #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #Terrestrial planet #Water cycle #Weathering #astro-ph.EP #physics.ao-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1038/s41467-020-19896-2
published in Nature Communications 11(1), 6153 (Nature Portfolio) · Published 12/1/2020 in Nature Communications. The supplemental data and code referenced in this work are available from the Nature Communications website (see DOI below) or by email from the authors
arxiv created 2020/12/01 · openalex publication_date 2020/12/01 · arxiv updated 2020/12/03 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Abstract In the conventional habitable zone (HZ) concept, a CO 2 -H 2 O greenhouse maintains surface liquid water. Through the water-mediated carbonate-silicate weathering cycle, atmospheric CO 2 partial pressure (pCO 2 ) responds to changes in surface temperature, stabilizing the climate over geologic timescales. We show that this weathering feedback ought to produce a log-linear relationship between pCO 2 and incident flux on Earth-like planets in the HZ. However, this trend has scatter because geophysical and physicochemical parameters can vary, such as land area for weathering and CO 2 outgassing fluxes. Using a coupled climate and carbonate-silicate weathering model, we quantify the likely scatter in pCO 2 with orbital distance throughout the HZ. From this dispersion, we predict a two-dimensional relationship between incident flux and pCO 2 in the HZ and show that it could be detected from at least 83 (2 σ ) Earth-like exoplanet observations. If fewer Earth-like exoplanets are observed, testing the HZ hypothesis from this relationship could be difficult.