Turns out we need more than just water and an even temperature.
Researchers at the Australian National University have found that out of 496 discovered planets, almost every single one of them doesn’t have a major ingredient that is necessary to sustain life.
While it’s true that two of the main requirements are water and temperature, it appears that there’s one more ingredient needed to make a planet habitable, and it’s too important to miss. The ‘ingredient?’ A magnetic field like our very own planet Earth’s.
Magnetic fields are not only there for decoration, of course; they also serve an important function for planets. The Earth’s magnetic field, for example, protects the planet from solar winds that could potentially strip away the ozone layer, which also serves another important function. That is, to shield the Earth from harmful ultraviolet rays that have a major impact on the build-up of greenhouse gases that cause global warming.
Without a magnetic field like Earth’s, other planets won’t be able to sustain life. In fact, researchers discovered that only one, namely Kepler-186f, may have a magnetic field that’s good enough, but it’s also not enough to be habitable. In the case of Mars or Venus, these planets used to have water, but without a similar magnetic field, solar radiation caused all the water to dry up.
