Thursday 10 December 2009 at 12:00 am - MONTHY MEETING - Habitability Within the Milky Way
Posted by: Michael Cook Category: Monthly Meetings
When: Thursday 10 December 2009 at 12:00 am Ends: Thursday 10 December 2009 at 02:00 am
Location: Whitby Library - Central Branch Meeting Room 1 A/B 405 Dundas Street West Whitby, Ontario
Habitability Within the Milky Way
Presented by Mike Gowanlock, M.Sc. Candidate, Trent University.
I model the Milky Way galaxy and constrain supernovae rates, planet formation, and the time required for complex life to evolve to assess habitability on the Galactic scale. I find that at present the majority of the disk component of our Galaxy is suitable for complex life. In addition, 0.466% of all stars host a habitable planet. Moreover, the Galactic Habitable Zone (GHZ), if described as the area(s) in the Galaxy with the greatest number of habitable planets appears to be highly dependent on the position above the Galactic midplane, and not entirely as a function of radial distance from the Galactic center. My study differs from other literature on the GHZ in the field by considering that SNII and SNIa have varying impacts on habitability, considering habitability on tidally locked and non-tidally locked planets separately, and studying habitability as a function of height above the midplane, and not solely as a function of radial distance.
MONTHLY MEETING - Earliest Stages of Star Formation
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