Category: Earth like planets

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The habitable zone of a planet(s)

This is my unprofessional view. I do stand by it with my best knowledge of this field in planetary science. My knowledge might be outdated or wrong, resulting in me getting the wrong conclusions in this article. You have been warned.

The problem with the habitable zone of a planet

I dislike it when I see the news that a planet has been found around a star. Only to see later in that same news that the planet is a dwarf star giving out minimal amount of light and heat. There seems to be minimal requirement for live to exist in the universe. I don’t know if this has been studied in any details or if there have been any study into this matter in recent years. There is a lower limit on were life can exist and there is a upper limit on this same scale.

The lower limit and the upper limit

In my personal view this star classes can support life. There are limits within those classification.

Lower limit

Class M (?)
Class K
Class G
Class F
Class A
Class M (red giants, supergiants)

Lower limit

The lower limit of stars might support life if the conditions allow for it. This might not happen in majority of any star system that falls into the lower limit. If life exists around such planet in a star system that falls into the lower limit that life might only be plants that can deal with cold temperatures and long winters. Animal life on such planet should be expected to be limited to not existing at all. This goes both for ocean and land animal life.

Upper limit

All of this classes might have their own limit and not all star systems that have planets support life due to random reasons. No dwarf stars (class L, Y, T, M). Any star that is at the end of its life span might have had life in the past, it however should be expected to be extinct at this point in the star life cycle. The upper class of stars is more complicated as they radiate more energy out and have a shorter life span than smaller stars. A life can evolve around such star but in the time needed for it to evolve to a civilization levels are limited because of the time needed until that happen.

There’s no guarantee for life in a star system

While a star might be favourable to life that alone is not a guarantee in any way that a star system is going to have any life. A lot of things can go wrong in a planet formation that results in no life or atmosphere that can support life. I don’t know what starts life in a star system but it is a sequence of events that has to happen each time life gets going on a planet in any star system that has life.

The complex life problem

While life might exist in a star system it does not have to be animal life. There might be planets out there with nothing but plants and insects on them and no animals. What path evolution takes on each planet is based on random factors that are impossible to predict.

The Venus problem

Venus is a dead planet in more than just one way. When it formed something did go horribly wrong during its formation or soon after it formed. This seems to have happened early on and there is a good chance that life never took hold on Venus and it never had any water to start the carbon cycle. According to this article and based on measurements Venus magnetic field flares up for a short period of time, this suggests that whatever happened to Venus is related to the planet core and issues that it is having. In our solar system Venus should be full of jungle life today and possibly hosting a civilisation on its own. Something like humans or perhaps not. Whatever happened resulted in Venus resulted in Venus being a dead planet and he has remained like this for billions of years.

The Mars problem

Mars never had any life. Its too small as a planet to support life and due to a large eruption in its past its core died and along with it everything that might have been on its surface. There is a chance that before the core of Mars core died due to the eruption of Olympus Mons and other volcano activity. Other reasons for Mars core dying are also possible, among them greater heat loss due to Mars being a smaller planet. Being a greater distance from the Sun in our solar system Mars never had any chance of supporting life. In other solar systems where the planetary evolution is different and Mars sized planet might be closer to its star there is a small chance a life might exists for as long the planet is able to maintain its magnetic sphere.

The planet problem

There are many factors that have to add up for a life to happen in a solar system. Sometimes those factors exist in a solar system and sometimes they are missing in the formation process. How and why are not known to anyone and it is the biggest question that humans have unanswered. An answer might appear in the centuries ahead if humans survive current global warming crises.

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The planet around Alpha Century Proxima (Red Dwarf)

Yesterday (24-August-2016) there has been a lot of news about the newly discovered planet. I don’t have all the information yet, so I’m going to keep this article short.

Far as I can gather, this newly discovered planet is earth size and up to 1,3 earth size in orbit around Alpha Century Proxmia. This planet is tidal locked and it is my view that rules out life on the planet as one side of the planet gets always warmed up. This planet is also in a orbit around red dwarf, that means (as I see it) that the energy the planet gets on the surface is too little energy overall to keep water floating, or as water vapour. Radiation might also be a problem, given that Jupiter in our own solar system emits deadly ration and some of its moons cross that radiation barrier. That might also be the case in Alpha Century Proxima b. Destroying the possibly of life, even if it did not exist on the surface. This does not rule out atmosphere on the planet, what type of atmosphere it might hold is impossible to know.

There is a lot of question unanswered about the Alpha Century systems, both Alpha Century Ab and Proxima. There is a good chance there are more planets around Proxmia, even if they have not yet been discovered (due to distance from the central star). There might also be planets orbiting Ab stars in the Alpha Century system, even if they have not been discovered so far. I hope that new planets get discovered around Alpha Century star system once the James Webb Space telescope (Wikipedia) gets on-line in 2019, after being lunched in October 2018.

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Exoplanet found around Alpha Centauri

This has been in the news all week. Scientists have found exoplanet around Alpha Centauri-B. This planet is in highly close orbit around Alpha Centauri-B. While this planet it self does not support life in any form. It opens up the possiblity that Alpha Centauri-A and B might have planets with life on them. Earth has life and is not so unique in my view.

This also makes Alpha Centauri A and B prime targets for searching alien civilizations close to our own solar system. But Alpha Centauri is just 4.37 light years away from Earth. But that means any radio signals are just 4.37 months reaching Earth (give or take). This also makes for a better signal detection at this short distance. If there is any civilization on Alpha Centauri A or B we have no way of knowing it state of technical levels. They might be more advanced then us, or they might be less advanced then us. Or they might still be in caves and really primitive. There is no way to know for sure. There is also a possibility that just life might exist in Alpha Centauri A-B system. But without any civilization at all. There is also chance if there was a civilization in the Alpha Centauri A-B solar system that it is long gone for one reason or other. Whatever the case actually is. This planet is a good hope that more planets might exist just 4.37 light years away from Earth.

But one thing is clear. We are never going to know without science studies in that direction. It is also my view that we need to study our closest star better then we already do. This applies mostly to the stars that are close to our own sun in size and brightness. Since the chance of finding planets like our Earth is highest around such stars. Rather then larger and heavier stars. Like blue giants and such. In that case. I think there might be planets around Sirius (8.6 light years away). But I do not think any such planet is likely to have any life on them. But I might be totally wrong in this estimate. But the only way to find out for sure is to study space, as it is human race most important step into the future.

News about this discovery

Next Door Neighbors? Earth-Sized Planet Discovered in Nearest Star System to Us (Universe Today)
Exoplanet around Alpha Centauri is nearest-ever (BBC News)

Technical information

Alpha Centauri 3 (Solstation)
Sirius 2 (Solstation)
Alpha Centauri (Wikipedia)

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More planets out there with life then originally predicted

According to recent news on BBC News there could be more planets out in the galaxy and every galaxy out there. This are the results from new computer model into this matter. This however does not say anything about if any of this planets has civilization out there. But that is always an possibility. What this actually means in reality is hard to know for sure. But one thing is clear. There is more life in the universe then we can imagine.

If people want to check more on this subject. They can read the whole deal in BBC News article.

More planets could harbour life (BBC News)

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No civilization around red dwarf stars

I did see in the news that scientists where looking for radio signals from the star Gliese 581. While there might be habitable planet around this star. I doubt there is any civilization located there. The reason is not that any planet there might not host life. The reason is what it takes life manage to go up to sentient level. The energy output from an red dwarf star is in my opinion just too small to make it. Some of the red dwarf class are so low in energy output that it would not even melt ice at good distance from it’s star.

I also believe the question about habitable zone around star is more then it’s distance compared to how bright it is. It certainly plays it’s role. I do not doubt that. But if a planet is too close to it’s star. Gravity is too strong for life to survive. if it is too far way, the planet get’s too cold. Too close, the planet also has the risk of facing just one side towards the sun and leaving the other part of the planet in eternal darkness. Something that would make life impossible to develop to any major level.

It is my opinion that best chance of finding life is around stars that are similar or same type as our sun. The universe is big and full of surprises. So I am in no doubt that intelligent life exist where I now consider impossible.

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Do alien detected our radio signals ?

The question can we hear aliens has an other side to it. That side is do alien hear our radio signals. This question has been asked and little bit answered also. It has been calculated how far out the radio signals go out from Earth in every direction. As the technology goes it does not look good for radio signal from Earth. Given the bandwidth that radio signal has to have to use in order to carry signals, as picture and audio to be detected.

In terms or radius on where our radio signals can be detected. I would not be surprised that common radio signals are not detected outside our own moon. The strongest one might be detected on Mars or even Jupiter. But beyond that they are not going to be detected in my option. So if aliens detect our radio signals, they are going to get rather close to Earth to do so.

This is might also be the reason why we here on Earth are not detecting any signals from other civilization. The transmission used on those worlds, if they are there to start with are not strong enough to reach our solar system. Our only chance of detecting alien signals might be to look for narrow band signals that can travel an long distance in interstellar space. But for us to find alien radio signals. We have to go out there and look for them the hard way.

There most likely is an alien civilization close to our own solar system. But we are just unaware of it due to the fact that we are unable to detect its radio signals due to distance. If they are present to start with. As not all alien civilization might be using radio signals, or be on that technical level yet.

Reference.

Section – F.06 How far away could we detect radio transmissions?

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Do we get alien signals ?

I have found that in all the debate about possible life and possibility of an civilization out there. The main problems is that we do not know if the civilization out there is using any radio technology. Even if they do. The question also remains if we get any of there signals to Earth. As the laws of physics say, radio signals can only go so far given certain amount of signal strength in any given radius. This is the complex way of saying that we might not be getting any signals because we are outside the coverage area of the civilization that we are looking at. Some civilization out there might not even be on the radio level technology at current moment. Even if we are there at present time.

I do not know if SETI or related areas have looked at the stars (solstation.com) in less then 20 light years distance from Earth. There have been some speculations on the distance on how far away the signals need to be so they can be detected. But one thing is for sure in my mind. It is almost impossible to detect an radio signal from other civilization if they are using anything remote close to our own technology.

The question on passing ships is an big one. But then an one-off signal should be expected and it might not repeat at all. It is also impossible to know how and often alien ship would travel trough our own solar system.

This is all just questions that are going to be answered one day. But it might take few more decades until it this questions are answered.

Blog post updated at 01:53 UTC on 11.01.2012.

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The search for civilization out there

For many decades now there has been a group of human been searching for signs of civilizations out there. So far there has not been any luck with it. Why I do not know. But I do think that how this search is done might be wrong. That is searching just one band of 1420Mhz, or the Hydrogen line (wiki). While this frequency might be optimal for space travel, I do not believe that is being used on a planet. The reasons being the same as here on Earth. It is impractical for communications.

I base my suggestion on the space travel and 1420Mhz on the Wow signal that was detected in the year 1977.

To search for civilization it is my opinion that the search must be done on frequencies that we human already use. But the problem here is the local noise, that is transmitters on Earth. But I do not think that problem cannot be crossed with good mapping of the local area frequencies in use. Along with frequencies that might bonce off Earth atmosphere.

The estimated range for radio signal from Earth is about 20 light year according to this study here. So mapping of yellow stars and similar types of suns in that range should not be too difficult. As the nearby stellar neighborhood is well known and has been for a long time now. But the question that remains unknown is if there is a civilization out there, does it have the technology to broadcast strong radio signals out into space. It might well be that a civilization is out there, but it might be on a stage that is equal Earth in 19th Century, or something earlier. Or they might well have passed us on the technological level and have stopped broadcasting radio signals into space.

This are all questions we might not get answer to. But if a radio signal is found from a alien civilization is found. It might give us a great idea what is out there. But I am sure that getting that type of signal is not going to be easy. In fact, I am sure that it is going to be real hard to do so. But it is not impossible, just hard. I am up for that challenge from my point of view. I hope that others are too.

I find that there are enough space blogs that cover the natural phenomena that can be found in Space. But nobody covers this aspect of space, since it has been made ridiculous for many decades now. We might not be able to communicate with a alien civilization out there. But we sure can listen to them if we find there signal.

This is what I am going to do with this blog. It took me long term to figure out what to do with this blog. The course has now been set. I welcome all my new readers to this blog. You know now what this blog means and what it stands for. I hope that you enjoy to read this blog, as I have writing it.

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Study suggests life on planets around 1/3 of solar like stars

A recent study that was done by Wesley Traub. But he estimates that there are about 34% with the error margin of +-14% of sun like stars with Earth like planets in there habitable zone. But this study has the potential for higher error rates, as it is only based on data from 136 days. But he also had to base his study on data from short period planets that are already known. But from what other media is reporting, it seems however that this study is all good.

But the hypothesis in this study means that there might be a lot of life out in the universe. But this does not equal that all of it is like humans and have developed a civilization. But all considered, I would say that chances of that are not too bad either.

Based on.

New study: 1/3 of Sun-like stars might have terrestrial planets in their habitable zones (Bad Astronomy)