Astronomer Interviewed on Alien Planets

Astrobiology Magazine interviews British astronomer Barrie Jones, who has done some pretty impressive work in mathematically modeling on the position of habitable zones (where rocky earth-like worlds would form) around other stars. He is very optimistic that we will soon find rocky terrestrial planets around other stars.

Jones's calculations show that up to half of the systems we have found planets in could concievably hold an earth type planet, even those with gas giants very close to the parent star. The conventional thinking was that gas giants (which cannnot form very close to a star) that migrate inward toward their star (as we often see in our observsations today) would disrupt the formation of smaller rock planets, but his models show that these planets can form in the habitable zone after the gas giants orbits change. This leads to some very big changes in the percentage of systems with possible earth-like planets, from below 20% to nearly 50%.

Jones also has an important role in the upcoming Darwin mission, as he explains:

"My role in the Darwin mission is going to be to analyze all of the extrasolar planetary systems known at that time, and come up with a list prioritizing which ones are more likely to have Earths in their habitable zones. It's a target-selection process, a bit like what Jill Tarter and the SETI Institute have done in looking for planets that might support intelligence."

Very interesting stuff.