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Habitability is a binary property

Nature Astronomy volume 3, pages 956–957 (2019)Cite this article

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Researchers are debating whether habitability is a binary concept or not. We propose that the habitability of environments is a continuum defined by a series of binary questions.

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Fig. 1: Habitability continuum derived from a series of binary states.

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Acknowledgements

C.S.C. and A.H.S. acknowledge support from Science and Technology Facilities Council grant ST/R000875/1. R.P. acknowledges support from a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology under grant no. 1711856. We acknowledge helpful comments from S. McMahon.

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  1. UK Centre for Astrobiology, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

    Charles S. Cockell, Adam H. Stevens & R. Prescott

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  1. Charles S. Cockell
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  2. Adam H. Stevens
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  3. R. Prescott
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Correspondence to Charles S. Cockell.

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Cockell, C.S., Stevens, A.H. & Prescott, R. Habitability is a binary property. Nat Astron 3, 956–957 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-019-0916-7

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