English (United Kingdom)

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/featured_content/oa?rat=en

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/highlighted_journal/

Global: Zendy Plus annual

Presents the access of premium content as premium feature

Premium Content

Presents the keyphrase highlighting as premium feature

Keyphrase Highlighting

Presents the summarisation as premium feature

Summarisation

Insights

Presents the pdf analysis as premium feature

PDF Analysis

Presents the zaia usage as premium feature

ZAIA

Global: Zendy Tools annual

Global: Zendy Free Plan

Global: Zendy Tools monthly

Global: Zendy Plus monthly

The closest potentially habitable worlds outside our Solar system orbit adifferent kind of star than our Sun: smaller red dwarf stars. Such stars canflare frequently, bombarding their planets with biologically damaginghigh-energy UV radiation, placing planetary atmospheres at risk of erosion andbringing the habitability of these worlds into question. However, the surfaceUV flux on these worlds is unknown. Here we show the first models of thesurface UV environments of the four closest potentially habitable exoplanets:Proxima-b, TRAPPIST-1e, Ross-128b, and LHS-1140b assuming different atmosphericcompositions, spanning Earth-analogue to eroded and anoxic atmospheres andcompare them to levels for Earth throughout its geological evolution. Even forplanet models with eroded and anoxic atmospheres, surface UV radiation remainsbelow early Earth levels, even during flares. Given that the early Earth wasinhabited, we show that UV radiation should not be a limiting factor for thehabitability of planets orbiting M stars. Our closest neighbouring worldsremain intriguing targets for the search for life beyond our Solar system.

Lessons from early Earth: UV surface radiation should not limit the habitability of active M star systems