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

Potentially-habitable planets orbiting M-dwarfs are of intenseastrobiological interest because they are the only rocky worlds accessible tobiosignature search over the next 10+ years due to a confluence ofobservational effects. Simultaneously, recent experimental and theoretical worksuggests that UV light may have played a key role in the origin of life onEarth, and especially the origin of RNA. Characterizing the UV environment onM-dwarfs planets is important to understanding whether life as we know it couldemerge on such worlds. In this work, we couple radiative transfer models toobserved M-dwarf spectra to determine the UV environment on prebioticEarth-analog planets orbiting M-dwarfs. We calculate dose rates to quantify theimpact of different host stars on prebiotically-important photoprocesses. Wefind that M-dwarf planets have access to 100-1000 times less bioactive UVfluence than the young Earth. It is unclear whether UV-sensitive prebioticchemistry that may have been important to abiogenesis, such as the only knownprebiotically plausible pathways for pyrimidine ribonucleotide synthesis, couldfunction on M-dwarf planets. This uncertainty affects objects like therecently-discovered habitable-zone planets orbiting Proxima Centauri,TRAPPIST-1, and LHS 1140. Laboratory studies of the sensitivity of putativeprebiotic pathways to irradiation level are required to resolve thisuncertainty. If steady-state M-dwarf UV output is insufficient to power thesepathways, transient elevated UV irradiation due to flares may suffice;laboratory studies can constrain this possibility as well.

The Surface UV Environment on Planets Orbiting M-Dwarfs: Implications for Prebiotic Chemistry & Need for Experimental Follow-Up