Hum Posted July 27, 2013 Share Posted July 27, 2013 A new study takes a deeper look into the fate of life-permitting water on Earth-like planets around red dwarf stars, the most common stars in the universe.Many of these exoplanets quickly become "tidally locked," with one side always facing their reddish star while the other side freezes in permanent night.The new research suggests that terrestrial, red dwarf-orbiting exoplanets with significantly less water than Earth might end up with almost all of their water "trapped" on the planet's night side, possibly hurting chances of supporting life in the planet's temperate regions. On the other hand, this water-trapping phenomenon might boost an exoplanet's odds for life by keeping at bay a super-heating, runaway greenhouse effect that would otherwise eventually dry a planet out and doom extraterrestrial life.Getting a handle on the habitability of Earth-like worlds around red dwarfs is important because this particular exoplanetary category should serve as the most readily accessible in our remote search for other beings.As many as three out of four stars in the Milky Way and other galaxies are red dwarfs. These cool stars possess anywhere from about a tenth to half the mass of the sun. The so-called habitable zone, the band around a star where water can exist in a liquid state on a planet's surface, is located very close to dim red dwarfs compared to our brighter, hotter sun.A common conception of tidally locked, Earth-like worlds around red dwarfs is that a great ocean of liquid water would dominate the daytime side. If the planet were hotter, that ocean might evaporate, creating a large land mass perhaps ringed by water along the temperate, day-night boundary line. The night side would be piled high with massive ice sheets and shelves."These worlds may well be among the first that we are able to probe and characterize for habitability," said Kristen Menou, an associate professor of astronomy at Columbia University and author of the new study accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal.more Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Growled Member Posted August 3, 2013 Member Share Posted August 3, 2013 I would imagine it's much harder for life to develop on these kind of planets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ILikeTobacco Posted August 3, 2013 Share Posted August 3, 2013 I would imagine it's much harder for life to develop on these kind of planets. Yea but, with the assumption the human race ever got that far, those planets would be perfect for setting up camp on. If you found one with livable temperatures on the day side or close to the border of day/night, you would have a planet with a massive water supply that just needs to be "mined" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noir Angel Posted August 3, 2013 Share Posted August 3, 2013 The universe is a massive place, so vast and variable that it's hard to imagine this being the only place the conditions for life exist but until we find evidence it will remain nothing more than an interesting theory. I personally believe however that there is other life out there, though whether there is any as advanced as us I couldn't say. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ILikeTobacco Posted August 3, 2013 Share Posted August 3, 2013 The universe is a massive place, so vast and variable that it's hard to imagine this being the only place the conditions for life exist but until we find evidence it will remain nothing more than an interesting theory. I personally believe however that there is other life out there, though whether there is any as advanced as us I couldn't say. We have already found places in our own solar system that life can currently exist in so it isn't really just a theory. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
devn00b Posted August 3, 2013 Share Posted August 3, 2013 We have already found places in our own solar system that life can currently exist in so it isn't really just a theory. Can != Does. I can smoke dog dirt, but I dont. That said, even if you plug in the most conservative estimates and guesstimates into the drake equation you still get a HUGE number of communicative(key word here) worlds, If one were to count non-communicative species (bacteria, virii, non-intelligent animals) the # would be insane. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ILikeTobacco Posted August 4, 2013 Share Posted August 4, 2013 Can != Does. I can smoke dog dirt, but I dont. That said, even if you plug in the most conservative estimates and guesstimates into the drake equation you still get a HUGE number of communicative(key word here) worlds, If one were to count non-communicative species (bacteria, virii, non-intelligent animals) the # would be insane. Notice what I qouted. He never said does exist. He said that we haven't see any evidence of plays that are capable of it which is not true. We have found places in our own solar system where life is capable of existing. Nobody is arguing about whether there is life there or not so you are arguing against nobody. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McKay Posted August 4, 2013 Share Posted August 4, 2013 I saw a documentary that stated that these tidally locked planets still have a good chance of not developing into "Too hot" on one side and "too cold" on the other. It said that air pressure would circulate air around the planet, bringing cool air to the bright side and warm air to the bright side Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GotBored Posted August 4, 2013 Share Posted August 4, 2013 Antarctica has dropped to ?89.2 ?C (?128.6 ?F) at Vostok Station before and there are penguins, polar bears, etc there. So life can evolve at extreme temperatures it just evolves around it. There must be other lifeforms out in the vast universe but the circumstances in which we evolved were pretty optimal and rare so its going to be hard to find similar planet/star clusters. I saw a documentary that stated that these tidally locked planets still have a good chance of not developing into "Too hot" on one side and "too cold" on the other. It said that air pressure would circulate air around the planet, bringing cool air to the bright side and warm air to the dark side Similar to our Ozone layer. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ILikeTobacco Posted August 4, 2013 Share Posted August 4, 2013 Antarctica has dropped to ?89.2 ?C (?128.6 ?F) at Vostok Station before and there are penguins, polar bears, etc there. So life can evolve at extreme temperatures it just evolves around it. There must be other lifeforms out in the vast universe but the circumstances in which we evolved were pretty optimal and rare so its going to be hard to find similar planet/star clusters. Similar to our Ozone layer. :) That is what limits us in our search though. We are looking for forms of life that we already understand and know to exist. We have found a new form of life that is not like anything else on the planet though so we know other forms can exist. We are currently only looking for planets with the chemistry to support our form of life. http://gizmodo.com/5704158/nasa-finds-new-life Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hum Posted August 4, 2013 Author Share Posted August 4, 2013 I would imagine it's much harder for life to develop on these kind of planets. Assuming that other advanced beings didn't give them a helping hand. ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Growled Member Posted August 5, 2013 Member Share Posted August 5, 2013 Assuming that other advanced beings didn't give them a helping hand. ;) There's always that, ain't there? We may never know for sure, and that gripes the heck out of me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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