The Circumstellar Habitable Zone Just Shrank

On this episode of ID the Future, Discovery Institute Senior Fellow Jay Richards speaks with astrobiologist Guillermo Gonzalez about new research just reported in the Astrophysical Journal. The research suggests that the circumstellar habitable zone for terrestrial planets around stars is narrower than previously thought. This zone around stars, often referred to as the “goldilocks zone,” is where planets are not too hot and not too cold to support liquid water on the surface and, with it, complex life. But there’s another factor, previously underappreciated, which greatly curtails how much further a planet can be situated from its host star without running into trouble. It makes earth’s position that much more fine-tuned for life and, as Richards and Gonzalez discuss, may also strengthen the design argument they put forward in their book The Privileged Planet, now available as an audiobook.