habitable zone tagged posts

This artist’s impression shows a view of the surface of the planet Proxima b orbiting the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the Solar System. The double star Alpha Centauri AB also appears in the image to the upper-right of Proxima itself. Proxima b is a little more massive than the Earth and orbits in the habitable zone around Proxima Centauri, where the temperature is suitable for liquid water to exist on its surface. Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser

Pale Red Dot campaign reveals Earth-mass world in orbit around Proxima Centauri using ESO telescopes and other facilities. The long-sought world, Proxima b, orbits its cool red parent star every 11 days and has a temperature suitable for liquid water to exist on its surface...

Rice University scientists propose that life in the solar system could have been very different – See more at: http://news.rice.edu/2016/07/05/lush-venus-searing-earth-it-could-have-happened-2/#sthash.pz2Lc0vd.dpuf

Life in the solar system could have been very different. If conditions had been just a little different an eon ago, there might be plentiful life on Venus and none on Earth. The idea isn’t so far-fetched, according to a hypothesis by Rice University scientists who published their thoughts on life-sustaining planets, the planets’ histories and the possibility of finding more...

Rendering of a possible alien Exo-planet. Elements of this image furnished by NASA. (Stock image) Credit: © mode_list / Fotolia

New research has revealed fewer than predicted planets may be capable of harboring life because their atmospheres keep them too hot. When looking for planets that could harbor life, scientists look for planets in the ‘habitable zones’ around their stars – at the right distance from the stars to allow water to exist in liquid form. Traditionally, this search has focused on looking for planets orbiting stars like our Sun, in a similar way to Earth.

However, recent research has turned to small planets orbiting very close to stars called M dwarfs, or red dwarfs, which are much smaller and dimmer than the Sun...

An artist’s conception of Kepler-62f, a planet in the ‘habitable zone’ of a star located about 1,200 light-years from Earth. Credit: NASA Ames/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle

Combined climate, orbit models show Kepler-62f might be able to sustain life. The planet, in the direction of constellation Lyra, is ~40% larger than Earth. At that size, Kepler-62f is within the range of planets that are likely to be rocky and possibly could have oceans. NASA’s Kepler mission discovered the planetary system that includes Kepler-62f in 2013, and it identified Kepler-62f, the outermost of 5 planets orbiting a star that is smaller and cooler than the sun. but there was no composition, atmosphere or orbit data.

To determine whether the planet could sustain life, the team came up with possible scenarios about what it...