All posts tagged: habitable

Astronomers identify 45 Earth-like planets in habitable zones

Astronomers identify 45 Earth-like planets in habitable zones

Published by skeptic

Astronomers have narrowed the search for extraterrestrial life by identifying a focused group of Earth-like planets that may offer the most favourable conditions for habitability. Drawing on updated stellar data and planetary records, researchers have compiled a catalogue of rocky exoplanets located within habitable zones – regions around stars where liquid water could potentially exist. The study highlights 45 planets as the strongest candidates for supporting life, out of more than 6,000 confirmed exoplanets discovered to date. A further subset of 24 planets falls within a more restrictive definition of habitability, offering a refined framework for future observation and analysis. Defining the habitable zone The concept of the habitable zone remains central to the search for life beyond Earth. It refers to the orbital region around a star where temperatures are neither too extreme for liquid water to persist on a planet’s surface. Water, widely considered essential for life as we know it, makes this zone a primary target for astronomers. Using updated measurements from the European Space Agency’s Gaia mission alongside data from the …

Hydrogen atmospheres could keep exomoons habitable for billions of years

Hydrogen atmospheres could keep exomoons habitable for billions of years

Published by Jenni Sidey

There is a category of planet that belongs to no star. It was thrown clear of its solar system early in the chaos of planetary formation, sent drifting into the galaxy’s cold interior with no sun to orbit and no light to receive. For a long time, the assumption was simple: without a star, no warmth; without warmth, no water; without water, no life. A new study from the Excellence Cluster ORIGINS at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics is quietly dismantling that assumption. Researchers have found that moons orbiting these starless wanderers, called free-floating planets, could maintain liquid water oceans for as long as 4.3 billion years. That number is not coincidental. It is roughly the age of complex life on Earth. The lead author, LMU doctoral researcher David Dahlbüdding, did not set out to rewrite the geography of habitability. The study began as an engineering problem: what kind of atmosphere could actually hold heat on a moon that receives no sunlight at all? Left: Evolution of …

This waterlogged corner of England was once only habitable during summer. Climate change could make it so again

This waterlogged corner of England was once only habitable during summer. Climate change could make it so again

Published by skeptic

Standing on the hills looking out across flat green fields, linked by a network of hedgerows, copses and small settlements, the Somerset Levels looks like quintessential English countryside. But this region’s rivers, drains, waterways and wetlands are integral to the levels’ history – an inhospitable, and at times perilously flooded, watery world, centuries ago only habitable during the summer months. Right now, the levels are experiencing extensive flooding, stretching for miles on all sides of any roads that are still open to vehicles. Communities are trying to cope with a relentlessly wet winter halting transport, closing schools and leaving homes underwater, underpinned by a longer-term cycle of climate and sea-level change. This part of south-west England, much of which is currently under water, used to be known as the “land of the summer people”. Historically, frequent flooding was the main reason for purely seasonal occupation in this area bordered by the Bristol Channel and the Mendip, Quantock and Blackdown Hills. Drier summers provided valuable grazing land and plentiful resources such as fish, peat, wildfowl and …