Pervasive Orbital Eccentricities Dictate the Habitability of Extrasolar Earths

Abstract

The long-term habitability of Earth-like planets requires low orbital eccentricities. A secular perturbation from a distant stellar companion is a very important mechanism in exciting planetary eccentricities, as many of the extrasolar planetary systems are associated with stellar companions. Although the orbital evolution of an Earth-like planet in a stellar binary is well understood, the effect of a binary perturbation to a more realistic system containing additional gas giant planets has been very little studied. Here we provide analytic criteria confirmed by a large ensemble of numerical integrations that identify the initial orbital parameters leading to eccentric orbits. We show that an extra-solar earth is likely to experience a broad range of orbital evolution dictated by the location of a gas-giant planet, necessitating more focused studies on the effect of eccentricity on the potential for life.