"Earth is the only known example of an inhabited planet in the universe, so the search for alien life has focused on Earth-like worlds.
But what if there are alien worlds that are even more habitable than Earth-like planets? These so-called "superhabitable" worlds are intriguing astrobiologists such René Heller at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada...There is life virtually everywhere there is liquid water on Earth. As such, the search for extraterrestrial life has focused on so-called habitable or "Goldilocks" zones — distances around stars at which a planet receives neither too much nor too little heat from its star to possess oceans of liquid water on its surface. (The moons of planets in the habitable zones of stars could potentially host surface water as well, opening up the possibility of inhabited moons.)
However, Heller reasoned that worlds other than Earth-like ones could offer conditions suitable for life........... Some planets and moons could be even better than Earth-like planets at offering such conditions.
Past research by Heller and his colleagues found that planets and moons do not have to lie within habitable zones as they are conventionally described to possess surface water, nor do worlds within habitable zones necessarily have surface water. A key factor underlying habitability, besides the amount of light a world receives from its star, is how much that world gets heated by tidal forces.
The tides that Earth experiences are caused by the gravitational pull of the moon and sun. Our tides pale in comparison to what we see elsewhere in the solar system — for instance, the gravitational pull Europa experiences from Jupiter leads to tidal forces roughly a thousand times stronger than what Earth feels from our moon.
Tidal forces not only flex the surface of Europa, but heat it as well. Heller and his colleagues found tidal heating could render other rocky bodies habitable even outside the normal confines of a habitable zone, and make worlds within the conventional definition of a habitable zone uninhabitable.
All in all, the researchers concluded superhabitable worlds will tend to orbit orange dwarfs ....This could make orange dwarf Alpha Centauri B, the member of the closest stellar system to the sun, an ideal target for searches of a superhabitable world, especially since it may host an Earth-mass planet."
AstrobiologyMagazine
But what if there are alien worlds that are even more habitable than Earth-like planets? These so-called "superhabitable" worlds are intriguing astrobiologists such René Heller at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada...There is life virtually everywhere there is liquid water on Earth. As such, the search for extraterrestrial life has focused on so-called habitable or "Goldilocks" zones — distances around stars at which a planet receives neither too much nor too little heat from its star to possess oceans of liquid water on its surface. (The moons of planets in the habitable zones of stars could potentially host surface water as well, opening up the possibility of inhabited moons.)
However, Heller reasoned that worlds other than Earth-like ones could offer conditions suitable for life........... Some planets and moons could be even better than Earth-like planets at offering such conditions.
Past research by Heller and his colleagues found that planets and moons do not have to lie within habitable zones as they are conventionally described to possess surface water, nor do worlds within habitable zones necessarily have surface water. A key factor underlying habitability, besides the amount of light a world receives from its star, is how much that world gets heated by tidal forces.
The tides that Earth experiences are caused by the gravitational pull of the moon and sun. Our tides pale in comparison to what we see elsewhere in the solar system — for instance, the gravitational pull Europa experiences from Jupiter leads to tidal forces roughly a thousand times stronger than what Earth feels from our moon.
Tidal forces not only flex the surface of Europa, but heat it as well. Heller and his colleagues found tidal heating could render other rocky bodies habitable even outside the normal confines of a habitable zone, and make worlds within the conventional definition of a habitable zone uninhabitable.
All in all, the researchers concluded superhabitable worlds will tend to orbit orange dwarfs ....This could make orange dwarf Alpha Centauri B, the member of the closest stellar system to the sun, an ideal target for searches of a superhabitable world, especially since it may host an Earth-mass planet."
AstrobiologyMagazine
Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God,
Hebrews 11:3