When Billions is Pittance Part IV

Are the actual conditions for a planet to be inhabitable for advanced life really very simple, as popular literature on this subject seems to imply?  In the year 1966, Ioseph Shklovskii and Carl Sagan expressed awareness of only two such required parameters which included first, the need for a certain kind of star, and second, need of a planet located at just the right distance from that star (details cited across this paragraph can all be referenced in The Creator and the Cosmos, Third Expanded edition, (NavPress, 2001), chapter 16, “Earth: The Place for Life,” by astronomer and physicist, Dr. Hugh Ross.  Further details can be referenced at his website at www.reasons.org).  Ross writes, “What were 2 parameters in 1966 [(p.175)] grew to 8 by the end of the 1960s, to 23 by the end of the 1970s, to 30 by the end of the 1980s, to the current list of 123 [as of the printing of the book in 2001]” (p.187).  Further details on these matters can be found at http://www. reasons.org/articles/fine-tuning-for-life-in-the-universe.  Both of the above references include thorough documentation that represents research across the entire scientific community on matters of cosmology.

On p.188f of his book, Dr. Ross lists 66 parameters in his table, “Evidence for the Fine-Tuning of the Galaxy-Sun-Earth-Moon System for Life Support.”  Later, on p. 195f, his table, “An Estimate of the Probability for Attaining the Necessary Parameters for Life Support,” he both lists 128 total required factors and (conservatively) estimates the probability of the occurrence of each of these necessary parameters.

Consider the following partial list of parameters necessary for habitable planets that are capable of supporting advanced life:  (1) that candidate planet must reside in spiral galaxy (only 5% of them are) that is (2) gravitationally associated with a small and loose cluster of other galaxies.  (3)  For reasons of protection from too much harmful radiation, it must reside at a just right location within the galaxy.  It must lie neither too close to nor too far away from either the galactic core or the spiral arms, and it must reside neither above nor below the galactic plane but in between.  (4) A habitable planet must have only one parent star (85-90% of known stars are doubles), (5) of a kind that happens to be a third generation star (6) of the right age, 7) right size, 8) level of stability, 9) and itself contain the necessary range of elements  to “seed” the solar system with solid planets like Earth.  (10) A habitable planet furthermore must itself, for gravitational reasons, be almost exactly the right size.  (11) It must lie at almost exactly the right distance from its parent star, and must contain on its surface (11) a wide range of the right elements, (12) included radioactive ones, (13) all in the necessary proportions.  (14) It must have neighboring planets of the right size (15) and distance.  (16) It must also have, for a host of critical reasons, a single moon, (17) of the right size, (18) at the right distance, and (19) revolving around its parent planet at the right speed.  A habitable planet furthermore (20) must have water, (21) rotate at the right speed, and (22) have both plate tectonics and (22) an electromagnetic field.

To be continued...