Goldilocks Zone Planets.

[Roboramma]

Yes. That is what I was alluding to in the OP.

I read a statement by a philosopher/mathematician* once:

"Not only do I believe there is other life out there in the universe - I think somewhere out there is a cricket team that can beat the English."

No this sounds quite silly but is rather profound. He was suggesting there is such an abundance of other life, that other similar civilisations to ours existed, and had invented the unlikely game of cricket.


* I think it was a philosopher/mathematician but am not sure and have not been able to track it down.

Somewhere in the observable universe? No. But the universe is much bigger than the observable universe.

Whether he's right or not depends on just how much bigger.

 

[sphenisc]

Somewhere in the observable universe? No. But the universe is much bigger than the observable universe.

Whether he's right or not depends on just how much bigger.

The universe only needs a radius of ~4000 miles for him to be right.

 

[3point14]

Yes. That is what I was alluding to in the OP.

I read a statement by a philosopher/mathematician* once:

"Not only do I believe there is other life out there in the universe - I think somewhere out there is a cricket team that can beat the English."

No this sounds quite silly but is rather profound. He was suggesting there is such an abundance of other life, that other similar civilisations to ours existed, and had invented the unlikely game of cricket.


* I think it was a philosopher/mathematician but am not sure and have not been able to track it down.

No other civilisation would have the poor taste to create a game called cricket...

(RIP DNA)

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

This was interesting, apparently Proxima Centauri is teeming with coronal mass ejections.

Massive flare seen on the closest star to the solar system: What it means for chances of alien neighbors

The Sun isn’t the only star to produce stellar flares. On April 21, 2021, a team of astronomers published new research describing the brightest flare ever measured from Proxima Centauri in ultraviolet light. To learn about this extraordinary event – and what it might mean for any life on the planets orbiting Earth’s closest neighboring star – I spoke with Parke Loyd, an astrophysicist at Arizona State University and co-author of the paper. Excerpts from our conversation are below and have been edited for length and clarity.

It tends to blast away the atmosphere like has happened on Mars when there isn't a strong magnetic field to block the solar wind.

But this star system differs from the Sun in a pretty key way. Proxima Centauri is a small star called a red dwarf – it’s around 15% of the radius of our Sun, and it’s substantially cooler. So Proxima b, in order for it to be in that Goldilocks zone, actually is a lot closer to Proxima Centauri than Earth is to the Sun.

You might think that a smaller star would be a tamer star, but that’s actually not the case at all – red dwarfs produce stellar flares a lot more frequently than the Sun does. So Proxima b, the closest planet in another solar system with a chance for having life, is subject to space weather that is a lot more violent than the space weather in Earth’s solar system.

 

[rjh01]

This was interesting, apparently Proxima Centauri is teeming with coronal mass ejections.

Massive flare seen on the closest star to the solar system: What it means for chances of alien neighbors

It tends to blast away the atmosphere like has happened on Mars when there isn't a strong magnetic field to block the solar wind.

That is a problem with stars. The smallest ones produce lots of flares that are hostile to life. Stars that are much bigger than ours have a short life span, so it does not give much time for life to develop. Can I suggest that there are only a small minority of stars, all of which are about the sun's size, that could have planets that could produce life that is as complex as what is on Earth.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

That is a problem with stars. The smallest ones produce lots of flares that are hostile to life. Stars that are much bigger than ours have a short life span, so it does not give much time for life to develop. Can I suggest that there are only a small minority of stars, all of which are about the sun's size, that could have planets that could produce life that is as complex as what is on Earth.

You can indeed speculate that. As a whole though, they still add up to an infinite number of goldilocks planets in the universe and a fair number in this galaxy. There're a heck of a lot of stars out there.

 

[Thor 2]

No other civilisation would have the poor taste to create a game called cricket...

(RIP DNA)

Aaw ........ a game that has yielded intellectual giants such as Shane Warne.