Is it realistic for so many planets to have breathable atmospheres?
Lost In Space showed many planets as having breathable oxygen in their atmospheres. How realistic is it for all these planets to have breathable atmospheres?
Best Answer
So what percentage of planets would be have breathable atmospheres with enough oxygen?
I note that the oldest fossils of lifeforms on Earth are at least three billion years old, but Earth did not have a breathable atmosphere until about 600 million years ago. The oxygen in Earth's atmosphere was actually produced by lifeforms through photosynthisis. So for at least 2 billion and 400 million years Earth was full of life forms which didn't need to breath oxygen and didn't need the present atmosphere of Earth. Remember that.
There actually is a scientific study about human habitable planets. Habitable Planets for Man, Stephen H. Dole, 1964.
https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/commercial_books/2007/RAND_CB179-1.pdf
There are many more recent discussions of planetary habitability. But in most cases I think they are discussing habitability for liquid water using lifeforms in general, not habitability for humans and other lifeforms which need oxygen rich atmospheres in particular. So a present day calculation that there are X billions of habitable planets in our galaxy will usually not say what proportion of those planets will have oxygen rich atmopsheres breathable for humans.
Thus Dole's calculations and estimations of the number of planets with breathable atmospheres will have to do, even though there has been a lot of astronomical progress in the almost 60 years since then.
On page 103 Dole concludes that there should be about 600 million human habitable planets in the Milky Way Galaxy.
On page 105 Dole says:
Throughout the Galaxy, the mean distance between a given star chosen at random and its closest stellar neighbor is about 4 light years; the mean distance between a star with a habitable planet and its closest neighbor with a habitable planet is about 24 light years.
So Dole calculated that there are a vast number of habitable planets with breathable oxygen atmospheres in the galaxy, but also that only a minority of stars have such planets and planets with oxygen rich atmossheres are separated by vast distances.
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Are there any planets with breathable air?
The Perseverance rover converted carbon dioxide into oxygen on Mars, marking the first time breathable air has been made on another planet, NASA announced Wednesday.Which planet has a breathable atmosphere and can sustain life?
Because the atmosphere of Venus is mostly carbon dioxide, oxygen and nitrogen \u2014 ordinary breathable air \u2014 would float. The air that's holding you up is also the air that you can breathe. The lifting gas is your environment."Is there a breathable atmosphere on Mars?
Mars does have an atmosphere, but it is about 100 times thinner than Earth's atmosphere and it has very little oxygen. The atmosphere on Mars is made up of mainly carbon dioxide. An astronaut on Mars would not be able to breathe the Martian air and would need a spacesuit with oxygen to work outdoors.Can a moon have a breathable atmosphere?
On the moon, there's no air to breathe, no breezes to make the flags planted there by the Apollo astronauts flutter. However, there is a very, very thin layer of gases on the lunar surface that can almost be called an atmosphere. Technically, it's considered an exosphere.This is How the James Webb Will Find Breathable Atmospheres
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Answer 2
How many is many ?
The 2018 Lost in space show, unlike a Star trek, Stargate or even previous iteration of Lost in space, did not show so many breathable planets. Half a dozen at most, not including Terra.
Considering the size of the galaxy (and even the universe), It would be very depressing it there was not at least a hundred planet with 'breathable'(within tolerance) athmosphere (see M.A. Golding answer about it).
What would be unrealistic would be stumble on a breathable planet every other day. By chance. Except we have confirmation that the jumps are controled by Robot (or SAR, or Scarecrow).
Sufficently advanced aliens
Season 3 give a lot of answer regarding robots and their origins.
They were created by an alien race, that lived apparently on a planet with an athmosphere good enough for humans.
Given the SF setting, and the technology they mastered, terraformation is not so farfetched if requiered (ie : if there is not enough breathable planet already).
We don't know how long they lived, and how long since
they died (Will explicitly states that the condition in the caves allow perfect conservation).
So for me, within the rules of the show, the amount of breahtable planet is perfectly realistic.
The Alpha Centaury one stretch suspension of disbelief due to the luck requiered for the closest star to have a breathable planet, but that's ok in a SF setting.
Answer 3
Not really since Oxygen is very plentiful, Oxygen is the 3rd most abundant element in universe.
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