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Study Suggests Alien Life Could Exist on Planets Once Deemed Uninhabitable
The study shows heat transfer and subglacial lakes could allow liquid water on tidally locked and icy planets, expanding habitable zones around M- and K-dwarf stars.
- Prof. Amri Wandel's new study in The Astrophysical Journal argues life may exist on tidally locked planets once deemed uninhabitable, challenging classical assumptions.
- For decades astronomers searched a narrow habitable zone roughly from Earth's orbit to Mars's orbit, excluding planets around very different stars or those much closer or farther from their star.
- Using a temperature-tracking model, the study argues heat flows from day to night side, allowing liquid water and subglacial lakes on cold planets, linking JWST atmospheric detections to refined climate models.
- As a result, planets once judged too hot, cold, or dark may now be promising candidates, and hidden liquid reservoirs could widen the worlds worth investigating for search teams.
- The study reframes the search for habitable worlds by expanding environments beyond the classical habitable zone and challenging astronomers and observational programs to reconsider targets, while it may also illuminate extreme climate dynamics on Earth.
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Phys.org
Phys.orgRethinking where life could exist beyond earth
Astronomers have long searched for life within a rather narrow ring around a star, the “habitable zone,” where a planet should be neither too hot nor too cold for liquid water. A new study argues that this ring is too strict: on tidally locked worlds that keep one face in daylight and the other in permanent night, heat may still circulate enough for liquid water to persist on the dark side, even when the planet orbits closer to cool …
·Washington, United States
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Leaning Left1Leaning Right0Center4Last UpdatedBias Distribution80% Center
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