Astronomers have always been interested in the possibility of life outside Earth. A new study now shows which factor could be particularly important.
Rochester - Earth is a habitable planet because the necessary conditions for human life are met there: Our Earth is at the right distance from the sun, is protected by a magnetic field, is kept warm by an insulating atmosphere and has the right chemical components for life , such as water.
In their search for the potential for life, researchers have been studying the special composition of the atmosphere of other planets for some time. Oxygen in particular plays a crucial role here. But as a study published in the scientific journal
Nature Astronomy
shows, oxygen may be even more important than previously thought. Because it could be the key to unlocking advanced technologies on other planets. With the space telescope it should soon be possible to discover alien civilizations.
Key to alien technology: Oxygen levels make crucial difference
In the new study, a team of physicists and astronomers from the University of Rochester in New York outline the connections between atmospheric oxygen and the possibility of technological advances on other planets. “We can find signs of life on alien worlds,” says Adam Frank, one of the study leaders. “But what do conditions on a planet tell us about the possibilities for intelligent, technology-producing life?”
The researchers assume that oxygen is necessary not only for respiration and metabolism in multicellular organisms, but also for the development of fire. And thus a hallmark of technological civilizations. On Earth, the controlled use of fire and subsequent advances were only possible because oxygen levels in the atmosphere were 18 percent or more. The oxygen content required for the biological maintenance of complex life and intelligence is therefore lower than the content required for technological developments.
Researchers have now even found a way to produce oxygen on Mars.
“Oxygen Bottleneck”: Technological civilizations cannot develop without oxygen
According to the researchers, a species could develop in a world without oxygen, but would then not be able to build a technological society. The researchers are talking about the so-called “oxygen bottleneck”: a term that distinguishes the critical threshold between worlds that can develop technological civilizations and those that cannot.
“The presence of high oxygen levels in the atmosphere is like a bottleneck that you have to overcome in order to develop a technological species,” says Frank. According to the researchers, the search for planets with high oxygen content should therefore be a priority. Oxygen was recently detected in the atmosphere of Venus, an essentially uninhabitable fire planet.
(jus)