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Lena Noack

Publications and source records attributed to Lena Noack.

22 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
arXiv2019

Geoscience for understanding habitability in the solar system and beyond

This paper reviews habitability conditions for a terrestrial planet from the point of view of geosciences. It addresses how interactions between the interior of a planet or a moon and its atmosphere and surface (including hydrosphere and biosphere) can affect habitability of the celestial body. It does not consider in detail the role of the central star but focusses more on surface conditions capable of sustaining life. We deal with fundamental issues of planetary habitability, i.e. the environmental conditions capable of sustaining life, and the above-mentioned interactions can affect the habitability of the celestial body. We address some hotly debated questions including: - How do core and mantle affect the evolution and habitability of planets? - What are the consequences of mantle overturn on the evolution of the interior and atmosphere? - What is the role of the global carbon and water cycles? - What influence do comet and asteroid impacts exert on the evolution of the planet? - How does life interact with the evolution of the Earth's geosphere and atmosphere? - How can knowledge of the solar system geophysics and habitability be applied to exoplanets? In addition, we address the identification of preserved life tracers in the context of the interaction of life with planetary evolution.

astro-ph.EP↗
arXiv2019

Detecting volcanically produced tori along orbits of exoplanets using UV spectroscopy

We suggest to use the Hubble Space Telescople (HST) follow-up observations of the TESS targets for detecting possible plasma tori along the orbits of exoplanets orbiting M dwarfs. The source of the torus could be planetary volcanic activity due to tidal or electromagnetic induction heating. Fast losses to space for planets orbiting these active stars can lead to the lost material forming a torus along the planetary orbit, similar to the Io plasma torus. We show that such torus would be potentially detectable by the HST in the UV.

astro-ph.EP↗
arXiv2018

Outgassing on stagnant-lid super-Earths

We explore volcanic outgassing on purely rocky, stagnant-lid exoplanets of different interior structures, compositions, thermal states, and age. We focus on planets in the mass range of 1-8 ME (Earth masses). We derive scaling laws to quantify first- and second-order influences of these parameters on volcanic outgassing after 4.5 Gyrs of evolution. Given commonly observed astrophysical data of super-Earths, we identify a range of possible interior structures and compositions by employing Bayesian inference modelling. [..] The identified interiors are subsequently used as input for two-dimensional (2-D) convection models to study partial melting, depletion, and outgassing rates of CO2. In total, we model depletion and outgassing for an extensive set of more than 2300 different super-Earth cases. We find that there is a mass range for which outgassing is most efficient (~2--3 ME, depending on thermal state) and an upper mass where outgassing becomes very inefficient (~5--7 \ME, depending on thermal state). [..] In summary, depletion and outgassing are mainly influenced by planet mass and thermal state. Interior structure and composition only moderately affect outgassing. The majority of outgassing occurs before 4.5 Gyrs, especially for planets below 3 ME. We conclude that for stagnant-lid planets, (1) compositional and structural properties have secondary influence on outgassing compared to planet mass and thermal state, and (2) confirm that there is a mass range for which outgassing is most efficient and an upper mass limit, above which no significant outgassing can occur. Our predicted trend of CO2-atmospheric masses can be observationally tested for exoplanets. These findings and our provided scaling laws are an important step in order to provide interpretative means for upcoming missions such as, e.g., JWST and E-ELT, that aim at characterizing exoplanet atmospheres.

astro-ph.EP↗