The Habitability of the Galactic Bulge

TL;DR

This paper investigates the habitability of the Milky Way bulge by analyzing environmental factors like radiation, supernovae, and potential for life transfer, providing new insights into the region's capacity to support life.

Contribution

It offers a comprehensive analysis of the Galactic Bulge's habitability, focusing on radiation, supernovae, and lithopanspermia, expanding previous studies on the Galactic Habitable Zone.

Findings

High supernova rate impacts habitability

Central black hole influences radiation environment

Potential for life transfer via lithopanspermia

Abstract

We present a new investigation of the habitability of the Milky Way bulge, that expands previous studies on the Galactic Habitable Zone. We discuss existing knowledge on the abundance of planets in the bulge, metallicity and the possible frequency of rocky planets, orbital stability and encounters, and the possibility of planets around the central supermassive black hole. We focus on two aspects that can present substantial differences with respect to the environment in the disk: (i) the ionizing radiation environment, due to the presence of the central black hole and to the highest rate of supernovae explosions and (ii) the efficiency of putative lithopanspermia mechanism for the diffusion of life between stellar systems. We use analytical models of the star density in the bulge to provide estimates of the rate of catastrophic events and of the diffusion timescales for life over interstellar distances.