Tuesday, July 11, 2023 03:10 PM
Tuesday, July 11, 2023 03:10 PM
Having chances to find life on other planets Significant, as many exoplanets may contain more liquid water than previously thought. Water is vital to the occurrence of life, so scientists looking for organic matter focus on regions and planets where it could feasibly form in a liquid state.
Previously, this was in the habitable zone (CHZ), the region around stars warm enough to sustain liquid water – more specifically, the CHZ around M-dwarf stars. These common stars are much cooler than the Sun, but they make up about 70% of the stars in the Milky Way, and most of the known exoplanets orbit M dwarfs.
However, new research has shown that exoplanets outside the CHZ have two main liquefaction mechanisms, which means life may still be able to thrive, according to Metro.
“As Earthlings, we are fortunate right now that we have the right amount of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere to make liquid water stable on the surface,” said lead author Lujendra Ojha.
However, if the Earth lost greenhouse gases, the average temperature would The earth’s surface It will be around -18 degrees Celsius, and most of the liquid surface water will freeze completely, a few billion years ago, this actually happened on our planet and the surface of the liquid water completely froze.
“However, this does not mean that water was completely solid everywhere. For example, heat from radioactivity deep within the Earth can heat water enough to keep it liquid. Even today, we see this happening in places like Antarctica and the Arctic.” Al-Kindi, where there are large underground lakes of liquid water that, despite freezing temperatures, feed on heat from radioactivity.
“There is even some evidence to suggest that this might be happening right now at the south pole of Mars.”
Source: Technology News: A new study.. The odds of finding life on other planets are 100 times better
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