Surviving Mars Super Habitable Planet

[Frida Kosofsky]

We are so over-focused on finding a mirror image of Earth that we may overlook a planet that is even more well-suited for life," Dirk Schulze-Makuch, an astrobiologist at Washington State University and the Technical University of Berlin, told Space.com.

To search for potentially superhabitable exoplanets, Schulze-Makuch and his team investigated the Kepler Object of Interest Exoplanet Archive, focusing on 4,500 planetary systems that likely possessed rocky planets within their stars' habitable zones, where liquid water can persist. The researchers published their findings in a 2020 paper in the journal Astrobiology.

Orange dwarf stars are about 50% more common than yellow dwarfs in the Milky Way. Whereas our sun has a lifetime estimated at less than 10 billion years, orange dwarfs have lifetimes of 20 billion to 70 billion years. Since complex life took about 3.5 billion years to appear on Earth, the longer lifetimes of orange dwarf stars could give planets within their habitable zones more time to develop life and accrue biodiversity.

The size and mass of a planet can also influence how well it can support life, the researchers wrote. A rocky planet that is larger than Earth would have more habitable surface area, and potentially a thicker, more stable atmosphere. A planet with about 1.5 times Earth's mass would likely retain its interior heat longer, which in turn would help keep its core molten and its protective magnetic field active for a greater timespan in which life might have the chance to arise and evolve.

Worlds that are slightly warmer than Earth by about 8 degrees Fahrenheit (5 degrees Celsius) might be superhabitable, since they could have larger tropical zones which on Earth foster more biodiversity. However, warmer planets might also need more moisture, since greater heat could expand deserts.

In addition, planets with the same amount of land area as Earth but broken up into smaller continents might be more habitable. When continents become particularly large (such as Earth's past continent Gondwana, about 500 million years ago), their centers are far from oceans, often rendering the interiors of large continents vast, inhospitable deserts. Moreover, Earth's shallow waters have a greater biodiversity than its deep oceans, so scientists speculate that planets with shallower waters could support more life.

KOI (Kepler Object of Interest) 5725.01 is a planet about 5.5 billion years old and 1.8 to 2.4 times Earth's diameter orbiting an orange dwarf about 2,965 light-years away. It might have an average surface temperature about 4.3 degrees F (2.4 degrees C) cooler than that of Earth, but if it has more greenhouse gases than Earth to trap heat, it might be superhabitable, the researchers wrote.

Schulze-Makuch's own favorite potentially superhabitable world from these 24 was KOI 5554.01. This planet is about 6.5 billion years old, with a diameter 0.72 to 1.29 times that of Earth, orbiting a yellow dwarf about 700 light-years from Earth.

All 24 of these potentially superhabitable planets are more than 100 light-years from Earth. This makes them too far for NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) spacecraft to capture high-quality images from to learn more about them.

Still, Schulze-Makuch noted that future spacecraft, such as the newly launched James Webb Space Telescope, NASA's LUVOIR space observatory mission concept and the European Space Agency's PLATO space telescope, could shed light on these worlds.

Charles Q. Choi is a contributing writer for Space.com and Live Science. He covers all things human origins and astronomy as well as physics, animals and general science topics. Charles has a Master of Arts degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia, School of Journalism and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of South Florida. Charles has visited every continent on Earth, drinking rancid yak butter tea in Lhasa, snorkeling with sea lions in the Galapagos and even climbing an iceberg in Antarctica. Visit him at http:\/\/www.sciwriter.us","contributorText":"With contributions from","contributors":["name":"Vicky Stein","role":"Contributing Writer","link":"href":"https:\/\/www.space.com\/author\/vicky-stein"]}), " -0-10/js/authorBio.js"); } else console.error('%c FTE ','background: #9306F9; color: #ffffff','no lazy slice hydration function available'); Charles Q. ChoiSocial Links NavigationContributing WriterCharles Q. Choi is a contributing writer for Space.com and Live Science. He covers all things human origins and astronomy as well as physics, animals and general science topics. Charles has a Master of Arts degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia, School of Journalism and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of South Florida. Charles has visited every continent on Earth, drinking rancid yak butter tea in Lhasa, snorkeling with sea lions in the Galapagos and even climbing an iceberg in Antarctica. Visit him at

The terraforming of Mars or the terraformation of Mars is a hypothetical procedure that would consist of a planetary engineering project or concurrent projects aspiring to transform Mars from a planet hostile to terrestrial life to one that could sustainably host humans and other lifeforms free of protection or mediation. The process would involve the modification of the planet's extant climate, atmosphere, and surface through a variety of resource-intensive initiatives, as well as the installation of a novel ecological system or systems.

Justifications for choosing Mars over other potential terraforming targets include the presence of water and a geological history that suggests it once harbored a dense atmosphere similar to Earth's. Hazards and difficulties include low gravity, toxic soil, low light levels relative to Earth's, and the lack of a magnetic field.

Disagreement exists about whether current technology could render the planet habitable. Reasons for objecting to terraforming include ethical concerns about terraforming and the considerable cost that such an undertaking would involve. Reasons for terraforming the planet include allaying concerns about resource use and depletion on Earth and arguments that the altering and subsequent or concurrent settlement of other planets decreases the odds of humanity's extinction.

Future population growth, demand for resources, and an alternate solution to the Doomsday argument may require human colonization of bodies other than Earth, such as Mars, the Moon, and other objects. Space colonization would facilitate harvesting the Solar System's energy and material resources.[2]

In many aspects, Mars is the most Earth-like of all the other planets in the Solar System.[citation needed] It is thought[3] that Mars had a more Earth-like environment early in its geological history, with a thicker atmosphere and abundant water that was lost over the course of hundreds of millions of years through atmospheric escape. Given the foundations of similarity and proximity, Mars would make one of the most plausible terraforming targets in the Solar System.

The Martian environment presents several terraforming challenges to overcome and the extent of terraforming may be limited by certain key environmental factors. The process of terraforming aims to mitigate the following distinctions between Mars and Earth, among others:

Mars doesn't have an intrinsic global magnetic field, but the solar wind directly interacts with the atmosphere of Mars, leading to the formation of a magnetosphere from magnetic field tubes.[15] This poses challenges for mitigating solar radiation and retaining an atmosphere.

Mars's CO

2 atmosphere has about 1% the pressure of the Earth's at sea level. It is estimated that there is sufficient CO

2 ice in the regolith and the south polar cap to form a 30 to 60 kilopascals [kPa] (4.4 to 8.7 psi) atmosphere if it is released by planetary warming.[20] The reappearance of liquid water on the Martian surface would add to the warming effects and atmospheric density,[20] but the lower gravity of Mars requires 2.6 times Earth's column airmass to obtain the optimum 100 kPa (15 psi) pressure at the surface.[21] Additional volatiles to increase the atmosphere's density must be supplied from an external source, such as redirecting several massive asteroids (40-400 billion tonnes total) containing ammonia (NH

3) as a source of nitrogen.[20]

Current conditions in the Martian atmosphere, at less than 1 kPa (0.15 psi) of atmospheric pressure, are significantly below the Armstrong limit of 6 kPa (0.87 psi) where very low pressure causes exposed bodily liquids such as saliva, tears, and the liquids wetting the alveoli within the lungs to boil away. Without a pressure suit, no amount of breathable oxygen delivered by any means will sustain oxygen-breathing life for more than a few minutes.[22][23] In the NASA technical report Rapid (Explosive) Decompression Emergencies in Pressure-Suited Subjects, after exposure to pressure below the Armstrong limit, a survivor reported that his "last conscious memory was of the water on his tongue beginning to boil".[23] In these conditions humans die within minutes unless a pressure suit provides life support.

If Mars' atmospheric pressure could rise above 19 kPa (2.8 psi), then a pressure suit would not be required. Visitors would only need to wear a mask that supplied 100% oxygen under positive pressure. A further increase to 24 kPa (3.5 psi) of atmospheric pressure would allow a simple mask supplying pure oxygen.[24][clarification needed] This might look similar to mountain climbers who venture into pressures below 37 kPa (5.4 psi), also called the death zone, where an insufficient amount of bottled oxygen has often resulted in hypoxia with fatalities.[25] However, if the increase in atmospheric pressure was achieved by increasing CO2 (or other toxic gas) the mask would have to ensure the external atmosphere did not enter the breathing apparatus. CO2 concentrations as low as 1% cause drowsiness in humans. Concentrations of 7% to 10% may cause suffocation, even in the presence of sufficient oxygen. (See Carbon dioxide toxicity.)

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