Most Exoplanets won’t Receive Enough Radiation to Support an Earth-Like Biosphere

[fred8615]

To date, astronomers have confirmed the existence of 4,422 extrasolar planets in 3,280 star systems, with an additional 7,445 candidates awaiting confirmation. Of these, only a small fraction (165) have been terrestrial (aka. rocky) in nature and comparable in size to Earth – i.e., not “Super-Earths.” And even less have been found that are orbiting within their parent star’s circumsolar habitable zone (HZ).

In the coming years, this is likely to change when next-generation instruments (like James Webb) are able to observe smaller planets that orbit closer to their stars (which is where Earth-like planets are more likely to reside). However, according to a new study by researchers from the University of Napoli and the Italian National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF), Earth-like biospheres may be very rare for exoplanets.

The study, titled “Efficiency of the oxygenic photosynthesis on Earth-like planets in the habitable zone,” was recently published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Led by astrophysics Prof. Giovanni Covone of the University of Napoli, the team focused on whether or not exoplanets discovered so far get enough Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR) to allow for the development of complex biospheres.

Read more: https://www.universetoday.com/151637/mo ... biosphere/

[Lariliss]

'To date, more than 4,000 exoplanets have been discovered and are considered "confirmed." However, there are thousands of other "candidate" exoplanet detections that require further observations in order to say for sure whether or not the exoplanet is real.' - NASA
https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/faq/6/how-m ... 0is%20real.

The activities of observation, habitable zone definitions, new discoveries are very active nowadays.
James Webb Telescope's one of the key missions is the exoplanets observation.
We will get more reliable data to draw more precise conclusions in the nearest future.