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 M¢25  Funded By Mahalo ? |  June 29, 2009 03:03 AM

How likely is the chance of discovering other habitable planets? The probability of life?

I have claimed the page for Extrasolar Planets. Besides Gliese 581 c, how likely is the chance of discovering others, possibly with life? I have nominated my page for Archive of the Week, so please vote in addition to answering the question. Thanks in advance.
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June 29, 2009 09:19 AM
The odds of finding a habitable planet depend on how you define "habitable." All stars are surrounded by temperature zones where water can exist as a liquid. Rocky (as opposed to gas-giant) exoplanets in these zones are probably underrepresented in the current count, since they are small and their observable effects are near or below the detection limit of current search techniques.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extrasolar_planet#Detection_methods

Therefore, there are probably numerous planets (or moons of gas-giant planets) in the galaxy capable of holding liquid water.

Life on Earth originated in an atmosphere without free oxygen, consisting mainly of carbon dioxide, water vapor, and nitrogen:

http://www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/~pogge/Ast161/Unit5/atmos.html

Such a planet could support life, but not human life. If the presence of free oxygen is considered a requirement for a "habitable" planet, then all habitable planets already have native organisms capable of photosynthesis (oxygen is too reactive to remain free in the atmosphere without constantly being replaced). The probability of such simple alien life is impossible to calculate with any accuracy; however, life on Earth first appeared shortly after a solid crust had formed:

http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2004/10.07/15-origins.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_evolution#Hadean_eon

This suggests that under suitable conditions, life may develop fairly easily, in which case life (at least primitive life) would not be uncommon. However, given that it took more than 2 billion years for life on Earth to evolve to the multicellular level, it is possible that more advanced forms of life may be quite rare.

BTW, according to the latest data, Gliese 581c is probably too hot to be habitable, but Gliese 581d is now thought to orbit within the habitable zone.

http://www.centauri-dreams.org/?p=1228
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gliese_581


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June 29, 2009 03:12 AM
This all depends on a specific variable which is impossible to derive. If we take this simplified version of Paul Wrey's equation: the number of galaxies in the universe (hundreds of billions) * the stars per galaxy (hundreds of billions) * the likely-hood of spontaneous life occurring in one of those solar systems, you get the possibility of life occuring elsewhere. Unfortunately we don't know what that chance is so this equation doesn't work. Here's a paper with much more detail on this though: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/augustine/arch/frear/rutler97.htm
Source(s):
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/augustine/arch/frear/rutler97.htm


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June 29, 2009 03:35 AM
The chance of discovering habitable planets grows greater and greater with every telescope and probe that we send out of our gravity well. I'm guessing that it will happen in the next few years. What I am really waiting for is for a series of telescopes to be placed in a huge equilateral triangle above or below the plane of our solar system. Life? Not in our lifetime.

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June 29, 2009 10:33 PM
It is actually very difficult to detect planets as they dont give out light. We can only really detect them by looking at star orbits and luminosity fluctuations as a planet moves in the way between us and a star so blocking some light. As a result we are only really detecting planets of the size of jupiter which will have very high gravitational fields, not very favourable for life. So finding a planet with life...I would say is low but I am sure they are there.

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