Comparative Habitability
In order to assess the likelihood of finding any sort of life on various planets and moons, Dirk Schulze-Makuch and other scientists have developed a Planetary Habitability Index which takes into account factors including characteristics of the surface and atmosphere, availability of energy, solvents and organic compounds. Using this index, based on data available in late 2011, the scientists found that Titan has the highest current habitability rating of any known world, other than Earth.
Read more about this topic: Life On Titan
Famous quotes containing the word comparative:
“That hour in the life of a man when first the help of humanity fails him, and he learns that in his obscurity and indigence humanity holds him a dog and no man: that hour is a hard one, but not the hardest. There is still another hour which follows, when he learns that in his infinite comparative minuteness and abjectness, the gods do likewise despise him, and own him not of their clan.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)