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Habitable Zones Around Low Mass Stars and the Search for Extraterrestrial Life

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Planetary and Interstellar Processes Relevant to the Origins of Life

Abstract

Habitable planets are likely to exist around stars not too different from the Sun if current theories about terrestrial climate evolution are correct. Some of these planets may have evolved life, and some of the inhabited planets may have evolved O2-rich atmospheres. Such atmospheres could be detected spectroscopically on planets around nearby stars using a space-based interferometer to search for the 9.6 µm band of O3. Planets with O2-rich atmospheres that lie within the habitable zone around their parent star are, in all probability, inhabited.

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Kasting, J.F. (1997). Habitable Zones Around Low Mass Stars and the Search for Extraterrestrial Life. In: Whittet, D.C.B. (eds) Planetary and Interstellar Processes Relevant to the Origins of Life. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-8907-9_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-8907-9_15

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-90-481-4863-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-015-8907-9

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