The asteroid belt in our solar system is thought to be a harbinger of life on Earth, and a recent study suggests that the conditions that preserve carbon-based molecules may apply to less than 4 percent of known solar systems.
The University of Colorado's Rebecca Martin states, "Our study shows that only a tiny fraction of planetary systems observed to date seem to have giant planets in the right location to produce an asteroid belt of the appropriate size, offering the potential for life on a nearby rocky planet. Our study suggests that our solar system may be rather special."
Space.com reports that the evolution of earth on life was catalyzed when rocks and comets from the asteroid belt delivered carbon-based molecules to the planet. The solar system's belt sits close to the snow line, a region in space that preserves carbon.
The Space Telescope Science Institute's Mario Livio notes, "Based on our scenario, we should concentrate our efforts to look for complex life in systems that have a giant planet outside of the snow line...To have such ideal conditions you need a giant planet like Jupiter that is just outside the asteroid belt [and] that migrated a little bit, but not through the belt,"
He adds, "If a large planet like Jupiter migrates through the belt, it would scatter the material. If, on the other hand, a large planet did not migrate at all, that, too, is not good because the asteroid belt would be too massive. There wold be so much bombardment from asteroids that life may never evolve."
The study can be found in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters.
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