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Hurry! Life Must Form Quickly on Some Planets

Posted October 23, 2008 9:31 AM

From SPACE.com:

Planets around small mass stars may only have a billion-year window during which life can form. This is the implication of research into the tidal forces that can pull a planet into a tighter orbit around a star. The so-called habitable zone around a star is loosely defined as planetary orbits in which water would be liquid, not vapor or solid, on the planets' surface. These orbits are closer-in for smaller (less bright) stars.

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cnpower
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#1

Re: Hurry! Life Must Form Quickly on Some Planets

10/23/2008 11:58 PM

really?
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EnviroMan
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#2

Re: Hurry! Life Must Form Quickly on Some Planets

10/24/2008 8:27 AM

"...may only have a billion-year window..."

I can see the need to hurry, then! Good gosh, if we only had a billion years, where would we be?

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Dragonsfarm
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#3

Re: Hurry! Life Must Form Quickly on Some Planets

10/25/2008 2:51 AM

Small mass stars, like type K stars (orange main sequence dwarfs) have lifespans that range between 25 billion years and 40 billion years. M type stars (red main seguence dwarfs) have life spans of 100 billion years or more.

Even though their "life zone" is smaller than that of our own solar system, once established a planet would have plenty of time to evolve life.

The tidal forces around a small mass star would also be smaller.

Regards Dragon

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Sparkstation
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#4

Re: Hurry! Life Must Form Quickly on Some Planets

11/07/2008 10:04 PM

More journalistic flannel.

<"....may....can....implication....so-called habitable....loosely defined....could....thought....Gaia hypothesis....imply....maybe....">

So as you should easily see, it's all just idle speculation.

Kind Regards....

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