Planetary Habitability
By (author) Professor Stephen R Kane
Publication date:
13 December 2021Length of book:
140 pagesPublisher
Institute Of Physics PublishingDimensions:
254x178mm7x10"
ISBN-13: 9780750321181
Understanding planetary habitability is one of the major challenges of the current scientific era, and is a vast inter-disciplinary undertaking that combines planetary science, climate science, and stellar astrophysics. This book provides an overview of the many processes that influence the energy balance of planetary surface environments and control the sustainability of temperate conditions. These factors include such aspects as the influence of stars, the atmospheres and interiors or planets, and the orbital dynamics of planetary systems. Also described are the concepts behind the habitable zone, lessons learned from solar system data, and the vast opportunities that are provided by exoplanet discoveries, both now and into the future.
Key Features:
- Summarises current exoplanet discoveries relevant to habitability
- Aimed at graduate students and researchers with an interest in exoplanets and astrobiology
- Describes the primary factors that influence the habitability of a planet
- Emphasises the need for in situ data in our solar system
- Covers the degeneracy of geosignatures and biosignatures
This textbook offers a very accessible introduction to the topic of planetary habitability, both in the context of Solar System bodies and exoplanets. It focuses on the concept of the Habitable Zone (HZ), which it breaks down according to three broad influencing factors: the planet itself, the stellar host, and the planetary system. The different chapters and their sections are very well linked together, and often invite the reader to recall a concept previously explained. Planetary habitability is a young and fast-evolving field and the author acknowledges the necessary incompleteness of his textbook, emphasizing that each approach “is likely case-specific in a way not yet obvious”. In this context, Professor Kane chooses to remain very Earth- and Solar System centric and approaches planetary habitability strictly through the lens of the Habitable Zone — for which he is extremely thorough and consistent.
Estelle Janin, The Observatory, October 2022