Where there are good Jupiters there be life

[banquo's_bumble_puppy]

My theory...look for systems with 'good' Jupiters and you will significantly increase the chances of finding Earth like planets...thoughts?

[Swift]

What do you mean by "Good" Jupiters. I assume you mean non-"hot" Jupiters. (?)

[Doodler]

My theory...look for systems with 'good' Jupiters and you will significantly increase the chances of finding Earth like planets...thoughts?

Reasonable, now the trick is finding them. Planets as such would have pretty long orbits, so determining their track could take time. 47 Ursa Maj is about as close as they've come to a 'good' Jupiter thus far.

[banquo's_bumble_puppy]

What do you mean by "Good" Jupiters. I assume you mean non-"hot" Jupiters. (?)

http://nai.arc.nasa.gov/news_stories.../homealone.htm

[banquo's_bumble_puppy]

My theory...look for systems with 'good' Jupiters and you will significantly increase the chances of finding Earth like planets...thoughts?

not my theory after-all- someone elses

http://nai.arc.nasa.gov/news_stories.../homealone.htm

[Ilya]

Most people assume that "hot Jupiters" make life-bearing planets impossible, as they had scattered all Earth-size planets in the course of their spiraling toward the star. I think that assumption ignores the possibility of terrestrial planets forming AFTER the "hot Jupiter" settled into its final orbit.

[Doodler]

Most people assume that "hot Jupiters" make life-bearing planets impossible, as they had scattered all Earth-size planets in the course of their spiraling toward the star. I think that assumption ignores the possibility of terrestrial planets forming AFTER the "hot Jupiter" settled into its final orbit.

That's entirely dependent on when the hot Jupiter stopped migrating relative to the dispersal of the dust disk. Could a planet like Earth even exist around a star where a hot Jupiter exists? Also, I remember reading a paper a few years back when these things first popped up that epistellar Jovians caused superflares on their parent stars, wouldn't this make life a little uncomfortable?

[Ilya]

Most people assume that "hot Jupiters" make life-bearing planets impossible, as they had scattered all Earth-size planets in the course of their spiraling toward the star. I think that assumption ignores the possibility of terrestrial planets forming AFTER the "hot Jupiter" settled into its final orbit.

That's entirely dependent on when the hot Jupiter stopped migrating relative to the dispersal of the dust disk.

Of course.

Could a planet like Earth even exist around a star where a hot Jupiter exists?

Absolutely. A stable orbit around a double star is possible if the stars are less than 1/4 of the planet's orbit apart. The Juipiter-mass body provides much less perturbation.

Also, I remember reading a paper a few years back when these things first popped up that epistellar Jovians caused superflares on their parent stars, wouldn't this make life a little uncomfortable?

For OUR life, yes - at least the land kind. But on a planet which has always been subjected to such flares, life would develop accordingly. Frequent bursts of ultraviolet radiation are no worse than some things Earth life managed to adapt to. (Not the least being the incredibly corrosive gas known as oxygen )

[tofu]

For OUR life, yes - at least the land kind. But on a planet which has always been subjected to such flares, life would develop accordingly. Frequent bursts of ultraviolet radiation are no worse than some things Earth life managed to adapt to. (Not the least being the incredibly corrosive gas known as oxygen )

indeed. Maybe an alien civilization is looking at our solar system right now through a hugh orbital interferometer and thinking, "wow, look at all the O2 on that third planet! It must be a lifeless ball of rock!"

[AK]

indeed. Maybe an alien civilization is looking at our solar system right now through a hugh orbital interferometer and thinking, "wow, look at all the O2 on that third planet! It must be a lifeless ball of rock!"

I think it is more likely that they would realize that an atmosphere containing as much free O2 as ours is radically out of equilibrium and therefore life is a likely source of this disequilibrium.