Fast litho-panspermia in the habitable zone of the TRAPPIST-1 system

Autor:	Krijt, Sebastiaan, Bowling, Timothy J., Lyons, Richard J., Ciesla, Fred J.
Rok vydání:	2017
Předmět:	Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Druh dokumentu:	Working Paper
DOI:	10.3847/2041-8213/aa6b9f
Popis:	With several short-period, Earth-mass planets in the habitable zone, the TRAPPIST-1 system potentially allows litho-panspermia to take place on very short timescales. We investigate the efficiency and speed of inter-planetary material transfer resulting from impacts onto the habitable zone planets. By simulating trajectories of impact ejecta from their moment of ejection until (re-)accretion, we find that transport between the habitable zone planets is fastest for ejection velocities around and just above planetary escape velocity. At these ejection velocities, ${\sim}10\%$ of the ejected material reaches another habitable zone planet within $10^2\mathrm{~yr}$, indicating litho-panspermia can be 4 to 5 orders of magnitude faster in TRAPPIST-1 than in the Solar System. Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJL
Databáze:	arXiv
Externí odkaz:	http://arxiv.org/abs/1704.01411 Zobrazit plný text záznamu View this record from Arxiv