The innermost Earth-like planet in the famous TRAPPIST-1 system might be capable of supporting a thick atmosphere after all, according to new research.
Nobody is seriously looking for ‘habitable’ planets because they expect humanity will someday inhabit them — this is all about the hunt for other life out there in the universe.
To astronomers, “habitable” just means that the planet gets to correct amount of energy from its star that liquid water could potentially exist on its surface. Liquid water may not actually be a requirement for life, but since we only have a single data point to work from, it makes sense to look for the preconditions of the kind of life we’re familiar with on earth, of which liquid water is a big one. (Another is carbon chemistry, so finding lots of atmospheric carbon isn’t necessarily a bad thing when searching for other life out there.)
Nobody is seriously looking for ‘habitable’ planets because they expect humanity will someday inhabit them — this is all about the hunt for other life out there in the universe.
To astronomers, “habitable” just means that the planet gets to correct amount of energy from its star that liquid water could potentially exist on its surface. Liquid water may not actually be a requirement for life, but since we only have a single data point to work from, it makes sense to look for the preconditions of the kind of life we’re familiar with on earth, of which liquid water is a big one. (Another is carbon chemistry, so finding lots of atmospheric carbon isn’t necessarily a bad thing when searching for other life out there.)