TNRTB Archive – Retained for reference information
Astronomers have found more evidence that our solar system possesses unique design characteristics for the support of advanced life. Having ruled out our galaxy’s central bulge, halo, and globular clusters as possible sites for a life-support planet, astronomers are left with only the spiral arms where a significant number of planetary systems could be found. A new study by American astronomers demonstrates, however, that diffuse x-ray emission accompanies the spiral arms of all nearby spiral galaxies, including our own. Not only is such x-ray emission dangerous for life, it is a marker for other dangerous forms of radiation. (Some past mass extinction events on Earth may be explained by a solar system crossing of a spiral arm.) Consequently, only a very rare planetary system that is far from the central bulge, from any globular clusters, from the galactic halo, and from any spiral arms is a candidate for advanced life. Our solar system is such a candidate.
Krystal Tyler et al., “Diffuse X-Ray Emission in Spiral Galaxies,” Astrophysical Journal 610 (2004): 213-25.
Part of my attraction to gamma-ray astronomy relates to the types of objects it observes. My graduate research focused on an object called Markarian...
Data from rovers continue to build strong evidence for transient periods of liquid water in local regions early in Mars’s history. Furthermore, those water...
The experimental and observational evidence that the universe has a beginning in finite time establishes that the universe must have some kind of Beginner....
