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Based on the artist's conception: we've discovered Tatooine! It sounds like there's two problems for anyone/thing living on these planets. First, they're close
by DougWebb 13y ago
Based on the artist's conception: we've discovered Tatooine!
It sounds like there's two problems for anyone/thing living on these planets. First, they're closer to their star than Mercury is to our sun. Unless the atmosphere is pretty dense and there's a strong magnetic field, the radiation on the surface is going to be pretty intense.
Second, one of the notes at the bottom of the article says the team believes the planets day and year are the same length, so one side always faces the star. That'll reduce the habitable area to a ring around the planet instead of the entire surface. We'd still be ok to put a colony there and we could probably generate lots of energy from the temperature differential, but it's much less likely that life would have evolved in that environment.