Two dozen planets have been identified by the researchers that it may have conditions more suitable for life than Earth. A study led by Washington State University scientist Dirk Schulze-Makuch recently published in the journal of Astrobiology details characteristics of these potential “superhabitable” planets. As per the report in Astrobiology Web, these more ‘liveable’ planets are older, a little larger, slightly warmer and possibly wetter than Earth. Some of these orbit stars that may be better than even our sun.
Life could also be more easily thrive on planets that circle more slowly changing stars with longer lifespans than our sun. The 24 top contenders for superhabitable planets are all more than 100 light years away, but Schulze-Makuch said the study could help focus future observation efforts, such as from NASA’s James Web Space Telescope, the LUVIOR space observatory and the European Space Agency’s PLATO space telescope.
“With the next space of telescopes coming up, we will get more information, so it is important to select some targets,” said Schulze-Makuch, a professor with WSU and the Technical University in Berlin. “We have to focus on certain planets that it have the most promising conditions for complex life. However, we have to be careful to not get stuck looking for a second Earth because there could be planets that might be more suitable for life than ours.”
So, can I go and live there?
For the study, Schulze-Makuch, a geobiologist with expertise in planetary habitability teamed up with astronomers Rene Heller of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research and Edward Guinan of Villanova University to identify superhabitability criteria and search among the 4,500 known exoplanets beyond our solar system for good candidates. Habitability does not mean these planets definitely have life, merely the conditions that would be conducive to life.
The researchers selected the planet-star systems with probable terrestrial planets orbiting within the host star’s liquid water habitable zone from the Kepler Object of Interest Exoplanet Archive of transiting exoplanets. While the sun is the center of our solar system, it has a relatively short lifespan of less than 10 billion years. Since it took nearly 4 billion years before any form of complex life appeared on Earth, many similar stars to our sun, called G stars, might run out of fuel before complex life can develop. In addition to looking at systems with cooler G stars, the researchers also looked at systems with K dwarf stars, which are somewhat cooler, less massive and less luminous than our sun.
K stars have the advantage of long lifespans of 20 billion to 70 billion years. This would be allow orbiting planets to be older as well as giving life more time to advance to the complexity currently found on Earth. However, to be habitable, planets should not be so old that they have exhausted their geothermal heat and lack protective geomagnetic fields. Earth is around 4.5 billion years old, but the researchers argue that the sweet spot for life is a planet that is between 5 billion to 8 billion years old.