The question of the possibility of life beyond Earth, as framed by the Drake equation, can be quantified to show that habitable environments for life as we know it are commonplace in the Galaxy.
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Acknowledgements
These ideas benefited from discussions with E. A. Frank (First Mode), O. Abramov (Planetary Science Institute), R. Brasser (Origins Research Institute, Budapest) and S. C. Werner (Univ. Oslo). I thank M. E. Brown (Caltech) for his elaboration of Sedna-like TNO populations. N. H. Sleep (Stanford) provided valuable perspective.
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Peer review information Nature Astronomy thanks Norman Sleep for their contribution to the peer review of this work.
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Mojzsis, S.J. Habitable potentials. Nat Astron 5, 1083–1085 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-021-01529-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-021-01529-3
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