The Life Zone:
A region of the Milky Way
Where the possibility of habitable
Worlds may lie.
Report by
FComm.DL Wey
DOSR: SFS – SFC
Research conducted by this facility into the discovery of planets around ‘sun like’ stellar bodies, has brought to light some interesting details.
The first of these is that: Of the planets discovered thus far, their suns have contained an unusually high concentration of elements heavier than Helium; Of those scrutinized thus far, a full 87.5% contained above average metal content.
Such information was never considered valuable, but if these ‘metal enhancements’ are as a result of the presence of planets, then the areas of both planetary formation and stellar evolution may require some reevaluating.
One theory on this suggests that: If a star and the surrounding ring of stellar debris [of dust and gas] does not possess a critical mass of metals (based on the total existing within our system as a ‘bench’) then planets can never form.
The second of these: That of being in the ‘right place’, suggests that in order to have the possibility for life, a system must not be too light in metals, nor too heavy. Too close to a source of heavy elements, and planets in that system would be continually ‘bombarded’ by debris from their neighbors. Therefore, a galaxy may have only a narrow area of ‘habitability’ roughly half again as far out from the galactic disk.The reasoning for this assertion is that the frequency of observed supernovae and other stellar phenomenon is low within this definable boundary.
This is, by no means, the only possibility to explain the levels of ‘heavy’ metals within a stellar body; nor is it meant to imply that such a ‘zone’ within a galaxy exists. But rather, it is a merely a reporting of observations currently under investigation to determine the validity of the phenomenon observed.