Thanks to observations by space telescopes such as Kepler, astronomers have already discovered a whole mass of planets in the vicinity of nearby stars. An analysis of long-term observations showed researchers that the existence of Earth-sized planets in habitable zones is quite common.
Such findings, one way or another, prompted researchers to think that such planets could be inhabited and there could be several tens or hundreds of billions of them only within the limits of our Galaxy. And in fact, the search for alien life has become a kind of holy grail for the next generation of telescopes and an inspiration for space travel to Mars and beyond.
However, all dreams of finding alien life were smashed against the stone by one simple fact – the instability of the early formation and evolution of rocky planets suggests that most aliens simply will not exist, since they will die out at the stage of fossil microbes. This is similar to how today we do not observe dinosaurs, but only find their fossilized remains.
In a study published in the journal Astrobiology, scientists argue that early extinction may be a default factor for life in the universe. This is because existing potentially habitable environments are highly unstable.
According to the new concept of habitability of planets, they must be inherent in conditions for at least a certain fraction of the population, that is, they must not only be suitable for the origin of life, but also in order to maintain its existence. Therefore, even if the emergence of living forms on planets in the habitable zone is a common phenomenon, it has not yet been found suitable for supporting life in an environment other than terrestrial.
