TY - BOOK ID - 21672857 TI - Rare earth : why complex life is uncommon in the universe AU - Ward, Peter Douglas AU - Brownlee, Donald PY - 2000 SN - 1280187743 9786610187744 0387218483 0387987010 9780387987019 9780387952895 0387952896 PB - New York : Copernicus, DB - UniCat KW - Life on other planets. KW - Exobiology. KW - Exobiology KW - Extraterrestrial Environment. KW - Origin of Life. KW - Environment, Extraterrestrial KW - Space (Astronomy) KW - Environments, Extraterrestrial KW - Extraterrestrial Environments KW - Spaces (Astronomy) KW - Space Flight KW - Astrobiology KW - Extraterrestrial Life KW - Life, Extraterrestrial KW - Extraterrestrial Environment KW - Habitable planets KW - Extraterrestrial life KW - Fermi's paradox KW - Genesis of Life KW - Life Geneses KW - Life Genesis KW - Life Origin KW - Life Origins KW - Popular works. KW - Science. KW - Astrobiology. KW - Astronomy. KW - Popular Science. KW - Popular Science in Astronomy. KW - Science, general. KW - Organelle Biogenesis KW - Planets KW - Biology KW - Life KW - Origin KW - Life on other planets KW - Vie extraterrestre KW - Exobiologie KW - Science, Humanities and Social Sciences, multidisciplinary. KW - Space Biology KW - Biologies, Space KW - Biology, Space KW - Space Biologies KW - Space Research KW - Origin of Life KW - Prebiotic Chemical Evolution KW - Chemical Evolution, Prebiotic KW - Evolution, Prebiotic Chemical KW - Prebiotic Chemical Evolutions UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:21672857 AB - n November 12, 2002, Dr. John Chambers of the NASA Ames - search Center gave a seminar to the Astrobiology Group at the OUniversity of Washington. The audience of about 100 listened with rapt attention as Chambers described results from a computer study of how planetary systems form. The goal of his research was to answer a dec- tively simple question: How often would newly forming planetary systems produce Earth-like planets, given a star the size of our own sun? By “Ear- like” Chambers meant a rocky planet with water on its surface, orbiting within a star’s “habitable zone. ” This not-too-hot and not-too-cold inner - gion, relatively close to the star, supports the presence of liquid water on a planet surface for hundreds of million of years—the time-span probably n- essary for the evolution of life. To answer the question of just how many Earth-like planets might be spawned in such a planetary system, Chambers had spent thousands of hours running highly sophisticated modeling p- grams through arrays of powerful computers. x Preface to the Paperback Edition The results presented at the meeting were startling. The simulations showed that rocky planets orbiting at the “right” distances from the central star are easily formed, but they can end up with a wide range of water c- tent. ER -