Goldilock principle

Goldilock principle

Off the internet

1. In astrobiology, the Goldilocks zone refers to the habitable zone around a star: As Stephen Hawking put it, "like Goldilocks, the development of intelligent life requires that planetary temperatures be 'just right'". The Rare Earth Hypothesis uses the Goldilocks principle in the argument that a planet must be neither too far away from nor too close to a star and galactic center to support life, while either extreme would result in a planet incapable of supporting life. Such a planet is colloquially called a "Goldilocks Planet". Paul Davies has argued for the extension of the principle to cover the selection of our universe from a (postulated) multiverse: "observers arise only in those universes where, like Goldilocks's porridge, things are by accident 'just right'".

2. In 'Goldilock and the Three Bears', Goldilock finds that only one bowl of porridge has the ''just right'' temperature, and in the same way within biology, you can find the 'just right' conditions -- called the Goldilocks principle. This research team has done by demonstrating that in order to get the 'just right' amount of signalling for symbiosis in the roots of legumes, a specific enzyme called chitinase (CHIT5) must be present.

3. Small planets, including Earth are much more likely to become incubators of life. Astronomers refer to these insignificant little worlds as terrestrial planets because they have heavy-metal cores surrounded by a rocky mantle. Terrestrial planets tend to stick close to their host stars, which means they have smaller orbits and much shorter years. Terrestrial or Earth-like planets are also more likely to lie in the Goldilocks zone. Also called the habitable zone or life zone, the Goldilocks region is an area of space in which a planet is just the right distance from its home star so that its surface is neither too hot nor too cold. Earth, of course, fills that bill, while Venus roasts and Mars exists as a frozen world. In between, the conditions are just right so that liquid water remains on the surface of the planet without freezing or evaporating out into space.

In my own words 

4. The goldilock principle for planets is when a planet is far enough away from the sun, so we won’t burn, but close enough so we don’t freeze. It is called the goldilocks principle because it is taken after the children fairytale where a little girl tries three different bowls of porridge and three different beds. One bed and one porridge where on one side of the scale (hot/hard) and another set were on the other side of the scale (cold/soft) whereas the last set of bed and food, were just right (temperature and firmness) Some planets are in the ‘just right’ place according to the sun/star they are orbiting. Any closer and any living thing would burn, any further away and they would freeze, they are just right.