2020/08/03 by Amedeo Balbi, Maryam Hami, Andjelka B. Kovačević +1
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Bulge #Circumstellar habitable zone #Exoplanet #Habitability #Milky Way #Planet #Planetary habitability #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #Supermassive black hole #astro-ph.EP #astro-ph.GA
paper · pdf · doi:10.3390/life10080132
Published in Life
openalex publication_date 2020/08/03 · arxiv created 2020/08/04 · arxiv updated 2020/08/05 · openalex created_date 2020/08/07 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We present a new investigation of the habitability of the Milky Way bulge, that expands previous studies on the Galactic Habitable Zone. We discuss existing knowledge on the abundance of planets in the bulge, metallicity and the possible frequency of rocky planets, orbital stability and encounters, and the possibility of planets around the central supermassive black hole. We focus on two aspects that can present substantial differences with respect to the environment in the disk: (i) the ionizing radiation environment, due to the presence of the central black hole and to the highest rate of supernovae explosions and (ii) the efficiency of putative lithopanspermia mechanism for the diffusion of life between stellar systems. We use analytical models of the star density in the bulge to provide estimates of the rate of catastrophic events and of the diffusion timescales for life over interstellar distances.