Relative likelihood for life as a function of cosmic time

2016/06/27 by Abraham Loeb, Rafael A. Batista, David Sloan · 2 voices · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · Earth and Planetary Sciences · #Space Science and Extraterrestrial Life #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #Earth Systems and Cosmic Evolution

paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/1475-7516/2016/08/040

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, LCDM. We find that unless habitability around low mass stars is suppressed, life is most likely to exist near 0.1 solar-mass 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.

Citations

• Possible Role of Gamma Ray Bursts on Life Extinction in the Universe
• Galactic Stellar and Substellar Initial Mass Function

Cited by

• Solar Hegemony: M-Dwarfs Are Unlikely to Host Observers Such as Ourselves

Discussions

• Relative Likelihood for Life as a Function of Cosmic Time [hn, 24 points, 12 comments]
• Life is most likely 10 trillion years from now, according to a new study, suggesting we Earthlings are premature. http://arxiv.org/abs/1606.08448 [bsky, 0 points, 1 comments]

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