Astrophysics, abstract
astro-ph/0612316

From: Nikos Prantzos [view email]

Date: Tue, 12 Dec 2006 16:02:29 GMT (147kb)

On the "Galactic Habitable Zone"

Authors: Nikos Prantzos (Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris)

Comments: 12 pages, 6 figures, Invited talk in "Strategies for Life Detection" (ISSI Bern, 24-28 April 2006), Eds, J. Bada et al., to appear in Space Science Reviews

The concept of Galactic Habitable Zone (GHZ) was introduced a few years ago as an extension of the much older concept of Circumstellar Habitable Zone. However, the physical processes underlying the former concept are hard to identify and even harder to quantify. That difficulty does not allow us, at present, to draw any significant conclusions about the extent of the GHZ: it may well be that the entire Milky Way disk is suitable for complex life.

http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0612316