The 10 pc neighborhood of habitable zone exoplanetary systems: Threat assessment from stellar encounters and supernovae

Abstract

The habitability of a planet is influenced by both its parent star and the properties of its local stellar neighborhood. Potential threats to habitability from the local stellar environment mainly arise from two factors: cataclysmic events such as powerful stellar explosions and orbital perturbations induced by close stellar encounters. Among the 4500+ exoplanet-hosting stars, about 140+ are known to host planets in their habitable zones (HZs). In this study, we use Gaia Data Release 3 data to investigate the 10 pc stellar neighborhood of the 84 habitable zone systems (HZSs) closest to the Sun. We assess the possible risks that the local stellar environments of these HZSs pose to their habitability. In particular, we find that HD 165155 has a high stellar density around it, making it likely to experience at least one flyby encounter within a span of 5 Gyr. We also identified two high-mass stars (M ≥ 8 M ⊙) as potential progenitors of supernovae, which could threaten the long-term survivability of HZSs HD 48265 and TOI-1227. Further, to quantify the similarity between HZ stars and the Sun, as well as their respective 10 pc stellar environments, we employ various astrophysical parameters to define a solar similarity index and a neighborhood similarity index. Our analysis suggests that HD 40307 exhibits the closest resemblance to the solar system, while HD 165155 shows the least resemblance