Researchers propose Net Primary Production (NPP) — total carbon fixed into biomass over time — as a measurable proxy for how far life could evolve on rocky exoplanets. Applying Earth benchmarks, many older worlds could still be “stuck in the slime age.”
Total photosynthetic carbon fixed over a planet’s history (cumulative NPP) can be a practical proxy for the amount of evolutionary opportunity life has had.
Using Earth as a benchmark, planets with low cumulative NPP may remain dominated by simple, single-celled life despite great age.
TRAPPIST-1e is likely a poor candidate for advanced life because of tidal locking, red-dwarf infrared output, and limited precipitation.
Here's how we do it Artist's impression of the surface of a planet orbiting Proxima Centauri. Kornmesser There's an active debate in the astrobiology community of where to use our best telescopes to look for our best chance of seeing alien life. That debate has been going on for decades, and will continue for some time to come, but now there's another option up for consideration.
if a star has been around for longer than our Sun, its planets have likely been around longer than Earth. Therefore, they have had even longer than Earth has to develop complex, intelligent life. All these problems combine to make this particular exoplanet not a great candidate for advanced life.
Older Alien Worlds Might Still Be Stuck in the Slime Age. Universe Today Universe Today is 100% AD-FREE thanks to our patrons. A new paper in the International Journal of Astrobiology by Dr.
Even planets billions of years older than Earth may host only microbes if photosynthesis supplies too little energy. Science fiction often imagines Earth’s galactic neighborhood teeming with hyper-advanced extraterrestrial civilizations, but the actual cosmos near us may be far quieter. A study published in the Interna
Most of our experience with the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) has been focused on capturing radio signals that alien species have sent out, whether intentionally or unintentionally. That creates a huge “synchronicity” problem - what if there aren’t any alien civilizations broadcasting radio signals no
Most of our experience with the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) has focused on capturing radio signals that alien species have sent out, whether intentionally or unintentionally. That creates a huge "synchronicity" problem—what if there aren't any alien civilizations broadcasting radio signals now, but
By simulating a billion years of Earth’s history, researchers have identified a possible window for life’s earliest chemistry around 4.33 billion years ago. During its first few hundred million years, Earth was a hostile target. Asteroids, comets, and leftover planetesimals, smaller bodies remaining from planet formati
Researchers developed a model showing how lava-covered planets close to their stars can hold onto their atmospheres, which could help guide the search for life beyond our solar system. Some planets orbit so close to their stars that intense radiation should strip away their atmospheres. Yet several of these scorching,
Galaxies and their stars in the early Universe look a lot weirder than those we see today, and astronomers want to know why. A team of researchers at the University of Utah decided to survey certain stars in nearby galaxies as analogs of those that existed when the Universe was still in its infancy. The survey, called
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