Search for Alien Life Should Include Exotic Possibilities

Search for Alien Life Should Include Exotic Possibilities


For most researchers’ money, an Earth-like planet is the best bet for finding alien life. But looking in such an exclusive range of possibilities might give them only half the story. A team of scientists is now proposing an index that ranks a planet’s habitability using a much wider set of criteria.

Bigger Goldilocks zone increases chance of finding life in space

Bigger Goldilocks zone increases chance of finding life in space

This makes it much more likely that life-supporting planets exist elsewhere in our galaxy.

The study looked at the relationship between the radiation from red dwarf stars and the reflective quality – or albedo – of snow and ice cover on orbiting planets.

Red dwarfs are cooler than G-type stars like our Sun and give off energy at longer wavelengths. More of this energy is absorbed by snow and ice than reflected back into space. This warms the planet's surface, melting some of the ice to produce liquid water – a fundamental requirement for life.

Tatooine World’s Moon Could Potentially Host Alien Life

Link: Tatooine World’s Moon Could Potentially Host Alien Life

Life probably doesn’t exist on one of the most famous exoplanets, the gas giant Kepler-16b, which like Star Wars’ Tatooine orbits two stars. But a potential moon orbiting this planet might be a good place to search for ET.

Kepler-16b is a Saturn-sized planet 200 light-years away that orbits a pair of stars with about two-thirds and one-fifth the mass of the sun, respectively. Yet with no solid surface to stand on, the planet seems unlikely to have any creatures on it watching the spectacular view of a double sunset.