Widen the Belt of Habitability!

Kurzfassung

Among the key-parameters to characterize habitability are presence or availability of liquid water, an appropriate temperature range, and the time scale of reference. These criteria for habitability are discussed and described from the point of view of water- and ice-physics, and it is shown that liquid water may exist in the sub-surfaces of planetary bodies like Mars, and possibly of inner asteroids and internally heated ice-moons. Water can remain fluid there also at temperatures far below the “canonical” 0 °C. This behaviour is made possible as a consequence of the freezing point depression due to salty solutes in water or “brines”, as they can be expected to exist in nature more frequently than pure liquid water. On the other hand, low temperatures cause a slowing down of chemical processes, as can be described by Arrhenius’s relation. The resulting smaller reaction rates probably will have the consequence to complicate the detection of low-temperature life processes, if they exist. Furthermore, the adaptation potential of life is to be mentioned in this context as a yet partially unknown process. Resulting recommendations are given to improve the use of criteria to characterize habitable conditions.