Billy Quarles, Zdzislaw E. Musielak, Manfred Cuntz
We demonstrate that habitable Earth-type planets and moons can exist in the
Kepler-16 system by investigating their orbital stability in the standard and
extended habitable zone (HZ). We find that Earth-type planets in S-type orbits
are possible within the standard HZ in direct vicinity of Kepler-16b, thus
constituting habitable exomoons. However, Earth-mass planets cannot exist in
P-type orbits around the two stellar components within the standard HZ. Yet,
P-type Earth-mass planets can exist superior to the giant planet in the
extended HZ pertaining to considerably enhanced back-warming in the planetary
atmosphere if facilitated. We briefly discuss the potential detectability of
such habitable Earth-type moons and planets positioned in S-type and P-type
orbits, respectively.
View original:
http://arxiv.org/abs/1201.2302
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