Re-Thinking This Galaxy's Habitable Zone

This won't make a bit of difference in how your coffee tastes, or whether the Mets will win the pennant.

But I thought it was interesting.

"Sun May Be Galactic Hitchhiker"
Space.com (September 22, 2008)

There have been assumptions about how stars orbit in the Milky Way galaxy, and what areas of the galaxy would be more - or less - favorable for life to exist. Those assumptions were reasonable, based on data that astronomers had, and mathematical models that they'd developed.

Now, there's a new model that may be a better fit with the real world. And, it shows that circular orbits in this galaxy shouldn't be that unusual - and that the orbits can shrink or grow and stay circular.

Which means that stars, including our sun, don't necessarily stay near where they were formed. It also means that the idea of "habitable zones" in the galaxy needs to be re-thought, since stars shift around more than we thought.

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Related posts, at

• "A Serious Search for Other Worlds, Life, and - Maybe - Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence"