More Constraints on Habitable Planet Locations

TNRTB Archive – Retained for reference information

Properties of ultraviolet (UV) radiation further constrain the location of habitable planets, illuminating additional design in the solar system. A team of Argentinian scientists investigated UV radiation’s effects on life. Too much UV radiation destroys essential biomolecules. However, too little UV radiation hinders biochemical reactions early in Earth’s history. These two constraints allowed the scientists to identify UV “habitable zones” (previous work has focused on life-essential liquid-water “habitable zones”) around stars with known extrasolar planets. For almost 60% of stars that could be studied, the UV and water habitable zones did not overlap. In the remaining systems where the habitable zones overlapped, the location of the gas-giant planets would prevent the formation of a life-supporting rocky planet. As predicted by RTB’s cosmic creation model, the possibility of natural processes producing a life-supporting planet becomes more remote as scientific understanding increases.

• Andrea P. Buccino, Guillermo A. Lemarchand, and Pablo J. D. Mauas, “Ultraviolet Radiation Constraints around the Circumstellar Habitable Zones,” Icarus 183 (2006): 491-503.
• https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2006.03.007
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