Other Solar Systems Could Be More Habitable Than Ours

Posted by Soulskill on Tuesday December 4, 2012 @10:32AM from the mars-isn't-pulling-its-weight dept.

SternisheFan sends word of new research out of Ohio State University into the possibility of life arising in other star systems: "Scattered around the Milky Way are stars that resemble our own sun—but a new study is finding that any planets orbiting those stars may very well be hotter and more dynamic than Earth. That's because the interiors of any terrestrial planets in these systems are likely warmer than Earth—up to 25 percent warmer, which would make them more geologically active and more likely to retain enough liquid water to support life, at least in its microbial form. ... 'If it turns out that these planets are warmer than we previously thought, then we can effectively increase the size of the habitable zone around these stars by pushing the habitable zone farther from the host star, and consider more of those planets hospitable to microbial life,' said Unterborn, who presented the results at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco this week."

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Re:So, maybe like Venus? by osu-neko · 2012-12-04 11:26 · Score: 5, Informative

Runaway greenhouse effect. Basically the fate Earth will end up in.
No. There's been times in the past when the CO2 levels in our atmosphere were twenty times higher than they are today. The rise since the Industrial Revolution is nothing compared to back then. Of course, back then we had "tropical" climes north of the Arctic Circle, but it didn't lead to a Venus-like runaway greenhouse effect. No, the true horror will be men wearing Speedos on the beach in Point Barrow...

--
"Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."
Re:Intelligent life by VortexCortex · 2012-12-04 11:33 · Score: 5, Funny

I can't help to think there is more intelligent life elsewhere.
Me too. I keep waiting for news to come back from NASA's Voyager team about the probe making contact with an alien artifact just beyond the Heliosphere.
My take on the Fermi Paradox is that there's a huge meta-material cloaked universal translator projecting a message to any would be visitors:
-------- Warning: Human Infestation This star system is Quarantined -------- We apologize for the inconvenience. -The Gods