An assistant professor at the University of Washington, Rory Barnes has successfully created software that can simulate how the planets have evolved over the years and will help in finding the other planets that might just support a habitable environment. Rory Barnes is an assistant professor of astrobiology, astronomy and data science.
The software, called VPLanet, a virtual planet simulator, the very first of its kind, has mentioned and described it in its research paper, which is due for publishing in the Publications of Astronomical Society of the Pacific.
The software combines various elements of the atmosphere together, performs different tests, studies various phenomena and based on that, it leads to the end goal, which is to see if the planets are habitable or not.
According to Barnes and his team, there are three main tasks for which the software is designed. Whenever new exoplanets (outer space planets) are discovered, we can test their capabilities of possessing liquid water, which has been a basic parameter to find other planets like earth.
For far too long, we have been studying planets that support life
In the likely case, the planet is inhabitable, the atmosphere of the planet can still be assessed for further review, which will reveal its past and the properties it exhibits. Also, it would enhance how we look at outer space today and our quest for finding new earth.
As Barnes explained, the main target is to find a life-sustaining environment, but the majority of the planets don’t exhibit that and we are aware of that fact. In the case, we will still inspect the planet for its history, about how it was formed and the records would be kept to assist in future researches.
Barnes gave his presentation of VPLanet’s first version in a recent AbSciCon19, which is an international astrobiology conference, which was held in Seattle. The work of Rory Barnes and his team of other astronomy professors, atmospheric sciences professors, doctoral and undergraduate researchers has been really breakthrough and remarkable.
