But the conditions for life as we know it may not be restricted to Earth-like planets, and now scientists have determined one kind of exoplanet that might have habitable conditions for billions of years.
New research, led by astronomer Marit Mol Lous of the University of Zürich in Switzerland, concludes that a nice, thick atmosphere of hydrogen and helium can sustain temperatures and conditions suitable for life for a very long time indeed.says theoretical astrophysicist Ravit Helled"With its natural greenhouse effect, it traps just the right amount of heat to create the right conditions for oceans, rivers, and rain.
"Such massive primordial atmospheres can also induce a greenhouse effect – much like Earth's atmosphere today,"."We therefore wanted to find out if these atmospheres can help to create the necessary conditions for liquid water." Their results showed that exoplanets with a thick primordial atmosphere could indeed be warm enough to maintain the presence of liquid water for up to 10 billion years.But there are caveats. To avoid the intense stellar radiation that can strip a primordial atmosphere, the exoplanet needs to be quite a distance from the star – around twice Earth's distance from the Sun.
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