Dusty Worlds May be Home to Life - Astronomy News with The Cosmic Companion June 11, 2020

Dust in the atmosphere of exoplanets could help insulate worlds, and make finding life there more difficult.

Exoplanets with a lot of dust in their atmosphere may be home to life. But that same dust could also block us from seeing it.

By James Maynard

Dusty worlds like seen in the sci-fi classic Dune may be common throughout the galaxy, and some worlds containing large quantities of dust in their atmospheres may be likely places to find life, a new study concludes. However, these dusty conditions also make finding evidence of life on these worlds more difficult.

Researchers modeled three forms of exoplanets, with varying amounts of dust in their atmosphere. The study found that dusty atmospheric conditions could insulate a planet, increasing the range of distances at which life could form, making the development of life more likely on these planets, if the planet is close enough to its parent star.

Read more: https://bit.ly/Dusty-Worlds-Life