Research

• Estimating the life span of the biosphere and the determination of the habitable zone
• The habitable zone of Earth-like planets around 47 UMa
• The number of habitable planets in the Milky Way over cosmological time scales

This research is part of the PLACES project.

Project head:

Siegfried Franck

Project scientists:

Werner von Bloh

Christine Bounama

External cooperations:

Manfred Cuntz, University of Texas in Arlington, Arlington, USA

Publications

W. von Bloh, C. Bounama, S. Franck, 2010. Photosynthesis in the Milky Way. Plant Science 178, 485-490.

W. von Bloh, K. J. Kossacki, S. Franck, and C. Bounama, 2010. Diurnal habitability of frozen worlds. Earth, Moon, and Planets 106(1), 15-26.

W. von Bloh, M. Cuntz, K.-P. Schroeder, C. Bounama, and S. Franck, 2009. Habitability of Super-Earth Planets around Other Suns: Models including Red Giant Branch Evolution. Astrobiology 9, 593-602.

W. von Bloh, C. Bounama, M. Cuntz and S. Franck, 2007. The habitability of super-Earths in Gliese 581. Astron. & Astrophys. 476, 1365-1371.

W. von Bloh, C. Bounama and S. Franck, 2007. Habitable zones in extrasolar planetary systems. In R. Dvorak (ed.), Extrasolar Planets, Wiley-VCH, 257-280.

C. Bounama, W.von Bloh and S. Franck, 2007. How rare is complex life in the Milky Way? Astrobiology 7(5), 745-756.

W. von Bloh, C. Bounama, and S. Franck, 2007. Dynamic habitability for Earth-like planets in 86 extrasolar planetary systems. Plan. Space Sci 55, 651-660.

W. von Bloh, C. Bounama, and S. Franck, 2005. Dynamic habitability of extrasolar planetary systems. Celestial Mechanics & Dynamical Astronomy 92, 287-300.

N. Asghari, C. Broeg, L. Carone, R. Casas-Miranda, J. Palaris, I. Csillik, R. Dvorak, F. Freistetter, G. Hadjivantsides, H. Husemann, A. Khramova, M. Khrisoforova, I. Khromova, I. Kitiashvilli, S. Kozlowski, T. Laskso, T. Laczkowski, D. Lytvinenko, O. Miloni, R. Morishima, A. Moro-Martin, V. Paksyutov, A. Pal, V. Patidar, B. Pecnik, O. Peles, J. Pyo, T. Quinn, A. Rodriguez, C. Romano, E. Sakia, J. Stadel, M. Thiel, N. Todorovic, D. Veras, E. Nieto, J. Vilagi , W. von Bloh, R. Zechner, and E. Zhohkova, 2004. Stability of Terrestrial Planets in the Habitable Zone of Gl 777 A, HD 72659, Gl 614, 47 Uma and HD 4208. Astron. & Astrophys. 426, 353-365.

S. Franck, W. von Bloh, C. Bounama, and H.-J. Schellnhuber, 2004. Extraterrestrial Gaias. In. J. R. Miller, S. H. Schneider, E. Crist, P. J. Boston (eds.), Scientists Debate Gaia: The Next Century, MIT Press, 309-319.

W. von Bloh, M. Cuntz, S. Franck, and C. Bounama, 2003. On the existence of habitability around 55 Cancri. Astrobiology, 3(4), 681-688.

S. Franck, M. Cuntz, W. von Bloh, and C. Bounama, 2003. The Habitable Zone of Earth-Mass Planets Around 47 UMa: Results for Land and Water Worlds. International Journal of Astrobiology, 2, 35-39 (abstract).

M. Cuntz, W. von Bloh, C. Bounama, and S. Franck, 2003. On the Possibility of Earth-Type Habitable Planets around 47 UMa. Icarus 162, 214-221 (abstract).

W. von Bloh, S. Franck, C. Bounama, and H.-J. Schellnhuber, 2003. Maximum number of habitable planets at the time of Earth's origin: new hints for panspermia? Orig. of Life Evol. Biosphere 33(2), 219-231 (abstract).

S. Franck, W. von Bloh, C. Bounama, M. Steffen, D. Schönberner, and H.-J. Schellnhuber, 2001. Habitable zones in extrasolar planetary systems. In: G. Horneck and C. Baumstark-Khan (eds.), astrobiology, the quest for conditions of life, Springer Verlag, Berlin, 47-56.

S. Franck, A. Block, W. von Bloh, C. Bounama, I. Garrido, and H.-J. Schellnhuber, 2001. Planetary habitability: is Earth commonplace in the Milky Way? Naturwiss. 88, 416-426 (abstract).

S. Franck, W. von Bloh, C. Bounama, M. Steffen, D. Schönberner and H.-J. Schellnhuber, 2001. Limits of photosynthesis in extrasolar planetary systems for Earth-like planets. Adv. Space Res. 28/4, 695-700 (abstract, article in PDF format, 180KB).

S. Franck, A. Block, W. von Bloh, C. Bounama., H.-J. Schellnhuber, and Y. M. Svirezhev, 2000. Habitable zone for Earth-like planets in the solar system. Plan. Space Sci. 48, 1099-1105 (abstract, full text as a PDF document).

S. Franck, W. von Bloh, C. Bounama, M. Steffen, D. Schönberner and H.-J. Schellnhuber, 2000. Determination of habitable zones in extrasolar planetary systems: Where are Gaia's sisters? J. Geophys. Res. 105, no. E1, 1651-1658 (abstract, article in PDF format, 380KB).

S. Franck, A. Block, W. von Bloh, C. Bounama., H.-J. Schellnhuber, and Y. M. Svirezhev, 2000. Reduction of life span as a consequence of geodynamics. Tellus 52B, 94-107 (abstract, full text as a HTML-document).

External links

• Research institutes
  • NASA Astrobiology Institute
  • Astrobiology Society of Britain
  • Centro de Astrobiologia Institute in Spain associated to the NASA Astrobiology Institute
  • AIP - Astrophysikalisches Institut Potsdam
  • MPIA - Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie
  • TLS - Thüringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg
  • AIU Jena - Astrophysical Institute & University Observatory Jena
• Space and research projects
  • Microlensing Planet Search Project - Planet detection via gravitational microlensing, see also the homepage of Joachim Wambsganss at AIP
  • University of California Planet Search Project
  • The Planet and Star Formation Group at the Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie Heidelberg
  • TEP Transits of extrasolar planets
  • TPF - Terrestrial planet finder project of the NASA
  • Darwin - Darwin project site of the ESA (space interferometry project)
• Collection of websites and encyclopaedia
  • The Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia - site maintained by Jean Schneider from the CNRS-Paris Observatory
  • The Astrobiology Web - Collection of web sites
  • Astrobiology Central + Spaceflight Central - A collection of resources maintained by David J. Darling
  • Homepage of John Chambers including the downloadable code for the Mercury symplectic solver.
• Journals
  • Astrobiology
  • Astronomy & Astrophysics
  • Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy
  • Icarus
  • International Journal of Astrobiology
  • Origins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres
  • Planetary and Space Science