(Image source: ISO)


 
BY MALLORY PERRYMAN
 
ANCHOR ANA COMPAIN-ROMERO
 

If aliens really do exist-- where do they live?
 
That’s the question scientists are trying to answer with a livability index of planets.
 
So where can we possibly find extra-terrestrial terrain?

According to MSNBC...

“...the winners are ... Titan in our own solar system, and the Gliese 581 planets in the extrasolar league.”

How’d they figure it out? BBC explains-- an international team of scientists came up with two rating systems: the Earth Similarity Index (ESI)  and a Planetary Habitability Index (PHI).

“As the name suggests, the ESI rates planets and moons on how Earth-like they are...
The PHI looks at a different set of factors, such as whether the world has a rocky or frozen surface, whether it has an atmosphere or a magnetic field. It also considers the energy available to any organisms...”


A blogger for The Register notes-- the hunt for earth-like planets? Old news. But the search for places with undiscovered types of life-- now that’s exciting.

“The [researchers] admit that this is something a bit like imagining all possible sorts of life forms and searching for them...However, they argue that not doing it risks overlooking potentially habitable worlds.”

The only thing standing in the way of the scientists’ plans? Well - science.
A Wired blogger explains-- technology isn’t quite there yet.
But it will be -- someday.

“While current telescopes can’t detect many of the characteristics needed to assess how an exoplanet would rank...future instruments could give astronomers these capabilities. [One researcher] suggested that in 10 or 20 years researchers might announce an ESI and PHI whenever a new exoplanet is discovered...”

The study was published in the journal Astrobiology. Whether you believe in aliens or not-- you can read the full report here.

 

Sci/Health News

Scientists Search for Most Livable Alien Worlds

November 25, 2011
(1:52)
International researchers are looking for life beyond "Earth-like planets."
   
TRANSCRIPT

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