A new study suggests that a right kind of asteroid belt in a solar system like ours can find intelligent life in the universe.
"Our study shows that only a tiny fraction of planetary systems observed to date seem to have giant planets in the right location to produce an asteroid belt of the appropriate size, offering the potential for life on a nearby rocky planet," study lead author Rebecca Martin, of the University of Colorado in Boulder, said in a statement. "Our study suggests that our solar system may be rather special."
The formation of our solar system's asteroid belt is rare because of the perfect placement of a huge planet like Jupiter at the "snow-line" which is ideal. Jupiter just moved the right amount several years ago resulting in the formation of the asteroid belt look like how it is now.
"To have such ideal conditions you need a giant planet like Jupiter that is just outside the asteroid belt [and] that migrated a little bit, but not through the belt," said study co-author Mario Livio of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore.
"If a large planet like Jupiter migrates through the belt, it would scatter the material," Livio added. "If, on the other hand, a large planet did not migrate at all, that, too, is not good because the asteroid belt would be too massive. There would be so much bombardment from asteroids that life may never evolve."
Martin also explained the same theory saying Jupiter is a very stable planet. It is not too far nor too close and just sits on the edge of the belt. If the planet is too far it will have no effect and result in other planets attacking each other more often than they would recover.
"It hasn't moved much more than 0.2 astronomical units (one AU = 92,955,807 miles) since it was formed. During its life 99 per cent of our asteroid belt has been scattered, thanks to its gravity," Martin said.
"Based on our scenario, we should concentrate our efforts to look for complex life in systems that have a giant planet outside of the snow line," Livio said.
