The search for alien life should consider the impact of cosmic rays, a new study suggests.
When scientists look for signs of life beyond Earth, first they check the extraterrestrial worlds inside the "Goldilocks zone" — the area around a star where sunlight makes it neither too hot nor too cold for liquid water to exist on a planet's surface. But a team of researchers has proposed another region where living things might exist: the "radiolytic habitable zone," where cosmic rays (also known as cosmic radiation) can generate enough energy to support life deep underwater or in ice.
