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      Constraining the magnitude of climate extremes from time-varying instellation on a circumbinary terrestrial planet

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          Abstract

          Planets that revolve around a binary pair of stars are known as circumbinary planets. The orbital motion of the stars around their center of mass causes a periodic variation in the total instellation incident upon a circumbinary planet. This study uses both an analytic and numerical energy balance model to calculate the extent to which this effect can drive changes in surface temperature on circumbinary terrestrial planets. We show that the amplitude of the temperature variation is largely constrained by the effective heat capacity, which corresponds to the ocean-to-land ratio on the planet. Planets with large ocean fractions should experience only modest warming and cooling of only a few degrees, which suggests that habitability cannot be precluded for such circumbinary planets. Planets with large land fractions that experience extreme periodic forcing could be prone to changes in temperature of tens of degrees or more, which could drive more extreme climate changes that inhibit continuously habitable conditions.

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          Long-Term Stability of Planets in Binary Systems

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            Transiting circumbinary planets Kepler-34 b and Kepler-35 b

            Most Sun-like stars in the Galaxy reside in gravitationally bound pairs of stars (binaries). Although long anticipated, the existence of a 'circumbinary planet' orbiting such a pair of normal stars was not definitively established until the discovery of the planet transiting (that is, passing in front of) Kepler-16. Questions remained, however, about the prevalence of circumbinary planets and their range of orbital and physical properties. Here we report two additional transiting circumbinary planets: Kepler-34 (AB)b and Kepler-35 (AB)b, referred to here as Kepler-34 b and Kepler-35 b, respectively. Each is a low-density gas-giant planet on an orbit closely aligned with that of its parent stars. Kepler-34 b orbits two Sun-like stars every 289 days, whereas Kepler-35 b orbits a pair of smaller stars (89% and 81% of the Sun's mass) every 131 days. The planets experience large multi-periodic variations in incident stellar radiation arising from the orbital motion of the stars. The observed rate of circumbinary planets in our sample implies that more than ∼1% of close binary stars have giant planets in nearly coplanar orbits, yielding a Galactic population of at least several million.
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              Energy balance climate models

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                Author and article information

                Journal
                13 November 2019
                Article
                1911.05577
                2b30ae82-dfa8-4cbb-b188-71acc27e2e43

                http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/

                History
                Custom metadata
                Accepted for publication in JGR-Planets
                astro-ph.EP physics.ao-ph

                Planetary astrophysics,Atmospheric, Oceanic and Environmental physics
                Planetary astrophysics, Atmospheric, Oceanic and Environmental physics

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