According to Research, Habitable Planetary Systems May Be Hindered by the Milky Way’s Dynamic Properties.

One of the latest scientific meetings of the European Astrobiology Institute (EAI) brought together around 250 researchers on La Palma, one of the volcanic Canary Islands. Astrobiology, which is the quest to understand how life arose on Earth and possibly on other planets, was the topic that united them. One of the most interesting presentations at the meeting looked at how the galactic environment affects exoplanet properties and habitability.

Scarlett Royle, a doctoral student at Liverpool John Moores University in the UK, presented a paper at the conference reporting that habitable planets are likely to be found in low-phase-space density environments. Essentially, this means that stars are born in a less dense environment, and these areas in the galactic disk show ripples and streams. Royle and colleagues restricted their research to solar type stars no larger than twice the mass of our Sun, with ages ranging from 1.2 to 3.5 billion years, all of which lie within some 120 lights years of Earth.

The planets that exist in phase-space overdensities are shown to have less planetary multiplicity, much shorter planetary orbits, and an excess of hot Jupiters compared to systems in underdense regions. Planetary systems can be influenced by gravitational perturbations from the central bar, the spiral arms, passing dwarf galaxies, or even the merger of giant spiral galaxies in the future.

The Solar System and other factors

Royle notes that our solar system is located in an underdense stellar environment where the stars nearby are quite low. Although stars begin their lives in giant molecular clouds and cluster in their birth environments in star forming regions throughout the galaxy, our star formed in an open cluster of stars in the plane of the Milky Way Galaxy. Royle suggests that the planetary systems resulting from underdense regions have wider orbits around their parent stars, which is closer to our habitable zone.

Jupiter-sized planets are formed at between 5 and 10 astronomical units (AU) from their parent stars. For example, our Jupiter orbits at 5 Earth-Sun distances. Exoplanets with hot Jupiters orbit shockingly closely to their parent stars, and we believe they were likely formed farther out in the planetary disk then migrated inwards. Royle suggests that galactic dynamical perturbations may have affected the planetary system and redirected hot Jupiters towards their parent stars.

Royle thinks that planetary systems that have faced galactic perturbations are less likely to be habitable. She believes that our solar system is rare and suggests that we need to protect our planet from the harmful effects of climate change instead of searching for new planets to live on.

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