Exoplanets: The Search of Sustainable Life

Source: Freepik

With the massive growth in population over the past decades, it is destined that Earth will run out of resources as long as the population continues to grow. This combined with natural disasters reaching all time high threats to our ecosystem and dangers to the people. People may believe that these dangers will occur millions of years from now, but it could be a real possibility within the next few decades unless action is taken.

It would be a good idea to find other planets that could sustain biological life and bring the same or similar conditions as Earth. In an observatory study by Schulze-Makuch, a group of scientists observed 24 planets that could potentially sustain life. However, just one was able to provide sufficient biodiversity with shallower waters and land area that is similar to Earth: KOI5715.01. 

With a larger circumference than Earth and a cooler average surface temperature than Earth, the potentially habitable planet does have its differences from Earth. However, many scientists speculate that this could be one of the most habitable planets in which they found. Still, there are some problems with the planet, which is that it does not contain enough greenhouse gases as Earth, which is crucial for biological life to thrive and the sustainability of the planet.

However, with the billions upon billions of planets out there, there should be a plethora of them that hold similar and specific conditions to Earth so that humans can live and thrive on the planet. As only our production of technological innovations could help us get to these far away planets and explore them.

References

Choi, C. Q. (2022, February 24). Superhabitable Planets: Alien worlds that may be more habitable than Earth. Space.com. https://www.space.com/superhabitable-planets