The Galactic Habitable Zone and the Age Distribution of Complex Life in the Milky Way

Charles H. Lineweaver; Yeshe Fenner; Brad K. Gibson

doi:10.1126/science.1092322

The Galactic Habitable Zone and the Age Distribution of Complex Life in the Milky Way

Charles H. Lineweaver^*, Yeshe Fenner, Brad K. Gibson

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

286 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We modeled the evolution of the Milky Way Galaxy 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.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	59-62
Number of pages	4
Journal	Science
Volume	303
Issue number	5654
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1092322
Publication status	Published - 2 Jan 2004
Externally published	Yes

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The Galactic Habitable Zone and the Age Distribution of Complex Life in the Milky Way

Abstract

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