Relative likelihood for life as a function of cosmic time

Loeb, Abraham and Batista, Rafael A. and Sloan, David (2016) Relative likelihood for life as a function of cosmic time. Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 2016 (08). p. 40. ISSN 1475-7516

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Abstract

Is life most likely to emerge at the present cosmic time near a star like the Sun? We address this question by calculating the relative formation probability per unit time of habitable Earth-like planets within a fixed comoving volume of the Universe, dP(t)/dt, starting from the first stars and continuing to the distant cosmic future. We conservatively restrict our attention to the context of ``life as we know it'' and the standard cosmological model, ΛCDM . We find that unless habitability around low mass stars is suppressed, life is most likely to exist near ∼ 0.1M⊙ stars ten trillion years from now. Spectroscopic searches for biosignatures in the atmospheres of transiting Earth-mass planets around low mass stars will determine whether present-day life is indeed premature or typical from a cosmic perspective.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3100/3103
Subjects:
?? ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS ??
ID Code:
131199
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
11 Feb 2019 11:45
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
18 Sep 2023 01:31