Kepler, Nasa’s planet-hunting spacecraft, has clocked up 1,235 new planets to date – could it eventually find one with the conditions needed to spark life, writes John Holden.
Lide on Earth was an unlikely outcome. The conditions required for life to evolve have been described as the Goldilocks Effect – everything has to be just so, not too hot, not too cold, not too dry, not too wet. In fact, the specific environment needed to make life possible is so exacting it would take a very modern Goldilocks to define them.
The Goldilock’s Effect refers to the size, scale, mass, atmospheric conditions and distance from our star (the sun) that must combine in order for Earth to harbour life. And with no other existential reference point to use, the search for life elsewhere is measured using the conditions under which life on Earth has come about.
Look up in our own sky, idiots. To read the rest of the article, click here.