Defining’'Habitability'’quickly’leads’to’problems…€¦ · ·...
Transcript of Defining’'Habitability'’quickly’leads’to’problems…€¦ · ·...
Defining 'Habitability' quickly leads to problems of other definitions. What is 'life'? What counts as 'survivable' - what kind of temporal and translational scales are being used? The bare surface of the moon is 'survivable', just not for very long. One could use the definition: 'An area in which an organism or group of organisms can sustain itself for a sufficient length of time such that the original organisms or their descendants are able to move to an unconnected area which itself is able to support the population' However, using this definition we cannot completely assert that the Earth is habitable. Perhaps a bubble with enough to thrive, whatever the size and whatever the timescale, is enough.