The galactic habitable zone and the age distribution of complex life in the Milky Way

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Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.3/374

Title: The galactic habitable zone and the age distribution of complex life in the Milky Way
Author(s): Lineweaver, Charles H.; Fenner, Yeshe; Gibson, Brad K.
Abstract: We modeled the evolution of the Milky Way to trace the distribution in space and time of four prerequisites for complex life: the presence of a host star, enough heavy elements to form terrestrial planets, sufficient time for biological evolution and an environment free of life-extinguishing supernovae. We identified the Galactic habitable zone (GHZ) as an annular region between 7 and 9 kiloparsecs from the Galactic center that widens with time and is composed of stars that formed between 8 and 4 billion years ago. This GHZ yields an age distribution for the complex life that may inhabit our Galaxy. We found that 75% of the stars in the GHZ are older than the Sun.
Publication type: Journal article
Research centre: Swinburne University of Technology. Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing
Source: Science, Vol. 303, no. 5654 (Jan 2004), pp. 59-62
Publication year: 2004
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science
ISSN: 0036-8075
Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1092322
Peer reviewed