Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2025/iii/paper-315/2/b/solution

Potential surface habitability requires a stable liquid-water interface, a temperature and pressure outside runaway-greenhouse and high-pressure-ice regimes, and an inventory large enough for collision-induced greenhouse warming but not so deep that pressure and temperature sterilize the ocean. Long-term atmospheric retention, tolerable stellar ultraviolet and particle flux, nutrient cycling, and chemical disequilibrium compatible with metabolism are also needed. A location in the circumstellar habitable zone alone is insufficient.
For and ,
Taking and hydrogen-rich mean molecular weight gives the atmospheric scale height
If a strong feature spans scale heights and , the atmospheric spectral-feature amplitude is
Clouds, hazes, refraction, and smaller molecular abundance reduce this estimate.

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