文章基本信息

标题：Dependence of Biological Activity on the Surface Water Fraction of Planets
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作者：Manasvi Lingam ; Abraham Loeb
期刊名称：The Astronomical journal
印刷版ISSN：0004-6256
电子版ISSN：1538-3881
出版年度：2019
卷号：157
期号：1
页码：1-12
DOI：10.3847/1538-3881/aaf420
语种：English
出版社：American Institute of Physics
摘要：One of the unique features associated with the Earth is that the fraction of its surface covered by land is comparable to that spanned by its oceans and other water bodies. Here, we investigate how extraterrestrial biospheres depend on the ratio of the surficial land and water fractions. We find that worlds that are overwhelmingly dominated by landmasses or oceans are likely to have sparse biospheres. Our analysis suggests that major evolutionary events such as the build-up of O 2 in the atmosphere and the emergence of technological intelligence might be relatively feasible only on a small subset of worlds with surface water fractions ranging approximately between 30% and 90%. We also discuss how our predictions can be evaluated by future observations and the implications for the prevalence of microbial and technological species in the universe.
关键词：astrobiology;extraterrestrial intelligence;planets and satellites: physical evolution;planets and satellites: surfaces