Feb. 9, 2012 at 6:06pm with 92 notes
Reblogged from the-star-stuff
the-star-stuff: Alien Life May Not Survive on Planets With Uranus-Like Tilts Subdued seasonality might be linked to the emergence of complex life on Earth around 600 million years ago. On alien worlds, extreme seasonal spikes and plunges in temperature could likewise determine whether life teems, scrapes by, or dies.   Seasons arise when the axis of a planet’s spin is tilted relative to the plane of the planet’s orbit. Recent research has suggested that a loss of axial tilt and its attendant seasonality, which helps moderate global temperatures, could doom extraterrestrial creatures. Scientists are also considering the opposite case: worlds where blazing summers and devastatingly frigid winters make the development of life with any complexity a long shot. “Axial tilt, or obliquity, is a crucial parameter for climate and the possible habitability of a planet,” said René Heller, a postdoctoral research associate at the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics in Potsdam, Germany. Heller was the lead author on two papers last year on obliquity loss due to tidal interactions on habitable planets around red dwarf stars.   CREDIT: NASA 

the-star-stuff:

Alien Life May Not Survive on Planets With Uranus-Like Tilts

Subdued seasonality might be linked to the emergence of complex life on Earth around 600 million years ago. On alien worlds, extreme seasonal spikes and plunges in temperature could likewise determine whether life teems, scrapes by, or dies.  

Seasons arise when the axis of a planet’s spin is tilted relative to the plane of the planet’s orbit. Recent research has suggested that a loss of axial tilt and its attendant seasonality, which helps moderate global temperatures, could doom extraterrestrial creatures. Scientists are also considering the opposite case: worlds where blazing summers and devastatingly frigid winters make the development of life with any complexity a long shot.

“Axial tilt, or obliquity, is a crucial parameter for climate and the possible habitability of a planet,” said René Heller, a postdoctoral research associate at the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics in Potsdam, Germany. Heller was the lead author on two papers last year on obliquity loss due to tidal interactions on habitable planets around red dwarf stars.  

CREDIT: NASA 

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  4. scorpysue reblogged this from xanthine and added:
    Love this stuff.
  5. xanthine reblogged this from fizzyhair and added:
    I just did the same thing. I think seeing Uranus woke up my inner 12-year-old. Haha sorry for that last sentence.
  6. andsunascends reblogged this from the-lives-of-stars and added:
    i legit read the title as ‘uranus-like tits.’ and i misread it 3 times before i got it right.
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    Alien Life May Not Survive on Planets With Uranus-Like Tilts Subdued seasonality might be linked to the emergence of...
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