Posted on 10/19/2022 4:56:15 AM PDT by Eleutheria5
The climate crisis presents a huge challenge to all people on Earth. It has led many scientists to look for exo-planets, planets outside our solar system that humans could potentially settle. The James Webb Space Telescope was developed as part of this search to provide detailed observational data about earth-like exo-planets in the coming years. A new project, led by Dr. Assaf Hochman at the Fredy & Nadine Herrmann Institute of Earth Sciences at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HU), in collaboration with Dr. Paolo De Luca at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center and Dr. Thaddeus D. Komacek at the University of Maryland, has successfully developed a framework to study the atmospheres of distant planets and locate those planets fit for human habitation, without having to visit them physically. Their joint research study was published in the prestigious Astrophysical Journal.
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(Excerpt) Read more at israelnationalnews.com ...
If Mars was closer to the size of Earth, so that it had a denser atmosphere, it too would still not be easily habitable.
Well, send Brian Stelter, Stacy Abrams and several other blimps to investigate, and boldly go where no man has gone before.
There are countless factors, including many unknown, that determine whether a planet may be habitable or more like Venus or Mars.
The biggest difference between Earth and Venus may not be Venus' closer orbit, but the fact that Venus has no inherent magnetic field generated by the motion of molten metal in its core. If Earth had no magnetic field, it's atmosphere would most likely resemble that of Venus and no plant or animal life could ever have evolved. If Earth suddenly lost its magnetic field, all existing life on the surface (both plant and animal) would quickly be sterilized from the solar radiation.
Another big factor is Earth's large moon. Without the Moon's tidal effect, Earth's seas would be stagnant and sea life likely never would have evolved.
Unless and until we either (a) actually discover life somewhere else, or (b) figure out how to make a living organism from scratch in a laboratory, we have no way to know if life (even the simplest forms of life) is common throughout the universe or extremely rare.
Complex organic molecules are common throughout the solar system and fairly simple to produce. Just take hydrogen, carbon, oxygen, and a few other elements, confine them to a closed environment (such as a planet's surface or a gas giant), bombard them with solar radiation or another constant heat source, and mix them around for a few million years. How to make the jump from the most complex organic molecule to the simplest living organism is completely unknown.
It could be that the evolution of life on Earth took trillions of different conditions and coincidental occurrences, all in the right order, making Earth the only planet in the galaxy on which life evolved. It is like the old adage that if you have an infinite number of monkeys banging the keys on an infinite number of typewriters one of them will eventually reproduce all of the works of Shakespear.
Completely agree. I was being simplistic in my approach to Mars being habitable.
What Climate Crisis?? I really enjoyed the CLimate change this Summer, went to the beach etc. And the climate change this Winter will allow for some fun smow activities. Oh, the climate change this Fall in New England produced some spectacular colors. I really enjoy climate change.
Global warming means more winter crops like cotton further North. It means more jobs for stupid people building dykes. It means less heating bills in winter. Damn the polar bears! Emit more carbon dioxide!
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