Do the seasons explain why Earth is teeming with life?
The axis on which Earth rotates is tilted by 23.5°—likely caused by an impact billions of years ago—which during our annual orbit around the Sun means that different parts of Earth receive sunlight for different lengths of time.
Cue Earth’s seasons, solstices, equinoxes … and life?
It’s long been thought that it’s the distance from its star that determines how likely it is for a planet to host life.
The theory goes that there’s a not-too-warm, not-too-cold, but just right “Goldilocks zone” within which liquid water can exist on the surface of a planet.
Now new NASA-funded research presented at the Goldschmidt Geochemistry Conference suggests that atmospheric oxygen—another key ingredient to life as we know it—may be more likely to occur on planets that orbit their stars on a tilted axis.
“Worlds that are modestly tilted on their axes may be more likely to evolve complex life,” said Stephanie Olson from Purdue University and lead researcher of the study. “This helps us narrow the search for complex, perhaps even intelligent life in the Universe.”
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