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from the in-star-trek-every-planet-is-habitable dept.
Earlier this month, a team of astronomers from the University of Liège, Belgium, and NASA, using the TRAPPIST instrument at the ESO site in La Silla, Chile, discovered three exoplanets with temperatures similar to those of the Earth and Venus orbiting an ultra-cool M class dwarf star. M dwarves makes up approximately 75 percent of the stars in our galaxy, and this discovery greatly improves the potential for habitable exoplanets.
A recent study from the Imperial College of London, however, suggests that, whilst these planets orbit cooler and less luminous stars, they may still be too hot to be habitable for life as we know it. Dr James Owen, Hubble Fellow and lead author of the study states:
It was previously assumed that planets with masses similar to Earth would be habitable simply because they were in the 'habitable zone'. However, when you consider how these planets evolve over billions of years this assumption turns out not to be true.
The atmospheres of these exoplanets are estimated to make up rougly one percent of their planetary mass. By comparison, the mass of our atmosphere is roughly one millionth of the mass of our planet. This suggests an especially thick atmosphere which, given the resultant greenhouse effect, may render these exoplanets uninhabitable. Naturally, this problem is inherent of planets of Earth-like mass, or heavier; smaller planets, e.g. of Mars-like mass, may lose some of this atmospheric mass through evaporation, as we have observed in our own solar system. Further cataloging of the orbital systems of M class dwarf stars will identify these low mass exoplanets as candidates for the ongoing search for extra-solar life.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 27 2016, @09:23AM
via terraforming.
By the time we have the technology to get there we will have the technology to do this.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 27 2016, @09:28AM
We were supposed to have flying cars and genetically engineered transhumans by now, but no, the damn internet just had to be created to distract everyone with porn and social media, so now nobody has the attention span anymore to invent anything new.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 27 2016, @09:32AM
What were we talking about again my gf just had to text me that were out of milk and the cat puked.
(Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Friday May 27 2016, @11:53AM
Lol, pls post cat pix.
(Score: 2, Funny) by tractatus_techno_philosophicus on Friday May 27 2016, @01:10PM
Suddenly, a fabulous cat appears.
(_＼ヽ
＼＼ .Λ＿Λ.
＼( ˇωˇ)
> ⌒ヽ
/ へ＼
/ / ＼＼
ﾚ ノ ヽ_つ
/ /
/ /|
( (ヽ
| |、＼
| 丿 ＼ ⌒)
| | ) /
`ノ ) Lﾉ
(_／
No moral system can rest solely on authority. ~A.J. Ayer
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 27 2016, @01:16PM
if my cat strutted like that after puking, I would throw it out of the house.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 27 2016, @09:37PM
... are you sure that's not a fabulous pig?