Extraterrestrial Liquid Water - Extrasolar Habitable Zone Candidates For Water

Extrasolar Habitable Zone Candidates For Water

Most known extrasolar planetary systems appear to have very different compositions to the Solar System, though there is probably sample bias arising from the detection methods.

The goal of current searches is to find Earth-sized planets in the habitable zone of their planetary systems (also sometimes called the Goldilocks zone). Planets with oceans could include Earth-sized moons of giant planets, though it remains speculative whether such 'moons' really exist. The Kepler telescope might be sensitive enough to detect them. But there is evidence that rocky planets hosting water may be commonplace throughout the Milky Way.

Read more about this topic:  Extraterrestrial Liquid Water

Famous quotes containing the words habitable, zone, candidates and/or water:

    “Where on the globe can there be found an area of equal extent with that occupied by the bulk of our States, so fertile and so rich and varied in its productions, and at the same time so habitable by the European, as this is?”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    “He who, from zone to zone,
    Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight,
    In the long way that I must tread alone,
    Will lead my steps aright.”
    —William Cullen Bryant (1794–1878)

    “Is it not manifest that our academic institutions should have a wider scope; that they should not be timid and keep the ruts of the last generation, but that wise men thinking for themselves and heartily seeking the good of mankind, and counting the cost of innovation, should dare to arouse the young to a just and heroic life; that the moral nature should be addressed in the school-room, and children should be treated as the high-born candidates of truth and virtue?”
    —Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    “We wished our two souls
    might return like gulls
    to the rock. In the end,
    the water was too cold for us.”
    —Robert Lowell (1917–1977)