The Galactic Habitable Zone and the Age Distribution of Complex Life in the Milky Way-Reference-Cited by-同舟云学术

The Galactic Habitable Zone and the Age Distribution of Complex Life in the Milky Way

Published:2004-01-02 Issue:5654 Volume:303 Page:59-62
ISSN:0036-8075
Container-title:Science
language:en
Short-container-title:Science

Author:

Lineweaver Charles H.¹²³,Fenner Yeshe¹²³,Gibson Brad K.¹²³

Affiliation:

1. Department of Astrophysics, University of New South Wales (NSW), Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia.

2. Australian Centre for Astrobiology, Macquarie University, NSW 2109, Australia.

3. Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University, Hawthorn, VIC 3122, Australia.

Abstract

We modeled the evolution of the Milky Way Galaxy to trace the distribution in space and time of four prerequisites for complex life: the presence of a host star, enough heavy elements to form terrestrial planets, sufficient time for biological evolution, and an environment free of life-extinguishing supernovae. We identified the Galactic habitable zone (GHZ) as an annular region between 7 and 9 kiloparsecs from the Galactic center that widens with time and is composed of stars that formed between 8 and 4 billion years ago. This GHZ yields an age distribution for the complex life that may inhabit our Galaxy. We found that 75% of the stars in the GHZ are older than the Sun.

Publisher

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Subject

Multidisciplinary

Reference18 articles.

1. W. H. Tucker, in Life in the Universe, J. Billingham, Ed. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press, Cambridge, MA, 1981), pp. 287–296.

2. G. Gonzalez, D. Brownlee, P. D. Ward, Sci. Am.285, 52 (October 2001).

3. The Galactic Habitable Zone: Galactic Chemical Evolution

4. Habitable Zones around Main Sequence Stars

Cited by 272 articles. 订阅此论文施引文献订阅此论文施引文献，注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献，订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献

1. Semi-Empirical Estimates of the Cosmic Planet Formation Rate;Galaxies;2024-08-18

2. Artificial Broadcasts as Galactic Populations. I. A Point Process Formalism for Extraterrestrial Intelligences and Their Broadcasts;The Astrophysical Journal;2024-05-01

3. Technosignatures Longevity and Lindy's Law;The Astronomical Journal;2024-02-20

4. Could a Kilonova Kill: A Threat Assessment;The Astrophysical Journal;2024-01-24

5. Astrobiological Exploration: Cosmic Evolution, Martian Habitats, and Prospects;2024