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Habitable potentials

Nature Astronomy volume 5, pages 1083–1085 (2021)Cite this article

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The question of the possibility of life beyond Earth, as framed by the Drake equation, can be quantified to show that habitable environments for life as we know it are commonplace in the Galaxy.

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Fig. 1: Growing catalogue of exoplanets.
Fig. 2: Habitable but not necessarily inhabited.

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Acknowledgements

These ideas benefited from discussions with E. A. Frank (First Mode), O. Abramov (Planetary Science Institute), R. Brasser (Origins Research Institute, Budapest) and S. C. Werner (Univ. Oslo). I thank M. E. Brown (Caltech) for his elaboration of Sedna-like TNO populations. N. H. Sleep (Stanford) provided valuable perspective.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Origins Research Institute, Research Centre for Astronomy and Earth Sciences, Budapest, Hungary

    Stephen J. Mojzsis

  2. Department of Lithospheric Research, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

    Stephen J. Mojzsis

  3. Department of Geological Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA

    Stephen J. Mojzsis

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  1. Stephen J. Mojzsis
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Correspondence to Stephen J. Mojzsis.

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Peer review information Nature Astronomy thanks Norman Sleep for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Mojzsis, S.J. Habitable potentials. Nat Astron 5, 1083–1085 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-021-01529-3

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