\n<\/p>\n
Sometimes, the easy calculations are the most interesting. A recent paper from Bal\u00e1zs Brad\u00e1k of Kobe University in Japan is a case in point. In it, he takes an admittedly simplistic approach but comes up with seven known exoplanets that could hold the key to the biggest question of them all \u2013 are we alone?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Dr. Brad\u00e1k starts with a simple premise \u2013 there is a chance that life on Earth might have started via panspermia. There is also a case that panspermia was intention \u2013 an advanced civilization could theoretically have purposefully sent a biological seed ship to our local solar system to spread life here, essentially from scratch.<\/p>\n With those admittedly very large assumptions in place, Dr. Brad\u00e1k works out a few characteristics about the planets that could have been the starting point for such a civilization. First, he assumes, as much of the astrobiological community does, that for an advanced civilization to arise on a planet, that planet has to be at least partially covered in an ocean.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n