Podcaster: Tony Darnell
Title: Deep Astronomy – Exoplanet Radio – Ep. . 34: Life in Terminator Zonesds Observatory?
Organization: Deep Astronomy
Link : https://deepastronomy.space
Twitter @DeepAstronomy, https://facebook.com/DeepAstronomy
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/deepastronomy
Description: From September 12, 2023.
Based on our experience here on Earth, we know life here to be tenacious and ubiquitous. Even in the harshest climates, if we look hard enough, we can usually find some sort of life there. We are hoping the same is true on worlds around other stars, and recent research has begun looking into the question of whether life on other worlds could exist in the most inhospitable environs: the terminator zone of tidally locked planets.
Bio: Tony Darnell is the owner of Deep Astronomy website and a host for the same hangout channel in Youtube. He has worked in the field of astronomy all my life, his first job was at a school district planetarium in Boulder, Colorado. With the exception of a stint in the Army in the 1980’s he has worked in many aspects of astronomical research.
Most of his time has been spent writing software to retrieve, process and analyze data taken from telescopes. He has worked with data from some of the world’s largest ground-based and space-based telescopes: from the four meter Blanco telescope in Chile to the Hubble Space Telescope.
Astronomy education has always been his passion and he has written articles for DeepAstronomy.space website and produce astronomy videos for YouTube on the DeepAstronomy channel.
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Transcript:
It’s the 365 Days of Astronomy podcast, coming in 3, 2, 1.
This is Exoplanet Radio. I’m Tony Darnell.
Based on our experience here on Earth, we know life to be tenacious and ubiquitous. Even in the harshest climates, if we look hard enough, we can usually find some sort of life there. We are hoping the same is true on worlds around other stars, and recent research has begun looking into the question of whether life on other worlds could exist in the most inhospitable environs, the terminator zone of tidally locked planets.
All planets that orbit a star have a terminator zone. This is the band of shadow that marks the night side of a planet and the day side. On most planets, the terminator moves along the surface as it rotates.
But on a tidally locked planet, the terminator stays over the same spot all the time. Tidally locking is a phenomenon that occurs when a planet rotates at the same speed as it orbits its star, so it always shows the same face to it. This happens when the gravitational pull of the star is stronger than the rotational force of the planet, and it causes the planet to slow down until it reaches a stable state.
You might be familiar with this effect from our own moon, which is tidally locked to Earth and always shows us the same side. But what if a planet was tidally locked to its star? Well, that would create a huge contrast in temperatures between the two sides of the planet.
The day side would be constantly exposed to the star’s heat and light, while the night side would be in perpetual darkness and cold. Depending on how close the planet is to its star, the day side could be hot enough to melt rocks, while the night side could be cold enough to freeze water. But there is a region in between called the terminator zone where things get more interesting.
The terminator zone is a band that separates the day from the night, where temperatures are more moderate and could allow liquid water to exist. And where there is water, there could be light, right? Well, maybe.
It depends on a lot of factors, such as the type and size of the star, the amount of water on the planet, and the presence of an atmosphere. Some scientists have been studying these terminator zones on exoplanets, especially those that orbit dim red dwarf stars, which are very common in our galaxy. Red dwarf stars are smaller and cooler than our sun, but they can still emit powerful flares and radiation that could harm life on nearby planets.
However, some of these planets could have habitable climates in their terminator zones, if they have enough water but not too much, and if they have rocky surfaces instead of global oceans. Why does water and surface matter? Well, water is essential for life as we know it, but too much water could create a runaway greenhouse effect that would make the planet too hot.
On the other hand, too little water could make the planet too dry and barren. A rocky surface could help regulate the temperature and provide nutrients for life, while an ocean-covered surface could make the planet more uniform and, well, boring. While this is an interesting idea, there are still a lot of unknowns and challenges for life to survive on these extreme worlds.
For example, how would life cope with the constant light or darkness? How would it deal with the strong winds and storms that could occur in the terminator zone itself? How would it adapt to any possible volcanic activity on the day side or ice formation on the night side?
How would it communicate and evolve in such diverse environments? These are some of the questions that astronomers hope to answer in the future as they search for signs of life on these exotic planets. Using telescopes like the James Webb Space Telescope and the Future Habitable Worlds Telescope, maybe one day we will find out that we are not alone in this vast universe, and that life can thrive in places we never imagined.
Exoplanet Radio is produced by Deep Astronomy. The music is by Geodesium and available at LochNessProductions.com. Get all episodes at ExoplanetRadio.com or anywhere you get podcasts. You are listening to the 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast. Cool.
[Outtro]
The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by the Planetary Science Institute. Audio post-production is by me, Richard Drumm. Project management is by Aviva Yamani and hosting is donated by LibSyn.com.
This content is released under a Creative Commons Attribution non-commercial 4.0 international license. Please share what you love, but don’t sell what’s free. This show is made possible thanks to the generous donations of people like you.
Please consider supporting our show on Patreon.com forward slash CosmoQuestX and get access to bonus content. Without your passion and contribution, we won’t be able to share the stories and inspire the world. We invite you to join our community of storytellers and share your voice with listeners worldwide.
As we wrap up today’s episode, we’re looking forward to unraveling more stories from the universe. With every new discovery from ground-based and space-based observatories and each milestone in space exploration, we come closer to understanding the cosmos and our place within it. Until next time, let the stars guide your curiosity.
End of podcast:
365 Days of Astronomy
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The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by Planetary Science Institute. Audio post production by me, Richard Drumm, project management by Avivah Yamani, and hosting donated by libsyn.com. This content is released under a creative commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license. Please share what you love but don’t sell what’s free.
This show is made possible thanks to the generous donations of people like you! Please consider supporting our show on Patreon.com/CosmoQuestX and get access to bonus content. Without your passion and contribution, we won’t be able to share the stories and inspire the worlds. We invite you to join our community of storytellers and share your voice with listeners worldwide.
As we wrap up today’s episode, we are looking forward to unravel more stories from the Universe. With every new discovery from ground-based and space-based observatories, and each milestone in space exploration, we come closer to understanding the cosmos and our place within it.
Until next time let the stars guide your curiosity