Scientists explain what would be wrong with Arrakis and Tatooine in the real world.

Could real planets, similar to the fictional Tatooine or Arrakis, actually be habitable? NASA has explored this question and provided their insights, as reported by SlashFilm.

Water is essential for life – this is a widely accepted fact. However, recent findings from NASA researchers reveal that water is not only crucial for the emergence and flourishing of life but also for planetary stability. Data from the NASA Habitable Worlds Observatory indicate that water is vital for the stability of entire ecosystems.

Primarily, water stabilizes temperature fluctuations on a planet, and without it, conditions suitable for life cannot be established. Instead, the planet would experience extreme temperature swings. Similar to the "three-body problem" effect, the planet would undergo stable and unstable periods, during which the environment would change dramatically.

"Such arid or completely dry planets, where the amount of water is less than one terrestrial ocean, could be quite common in the universe. We have determined that there is a threshold amount of water necessary for the climate of a planet to remain stable," says Haskell Trigg White-Gianelles, a graduate student at the University of Washington.

The researcher adds that even if a planet is located in the "habitable zone," it still requires a certain amount of water to maintain atmospheric stability. White-Gianelles participated in creating a model for the evolution of desert planets.

The model demonstrated that life is unlikely to emerge on a planet experiencing sharp temperature fluctuations when the water level falls below the necessary amount.

Another issue is that the limited amount of water that may exist on desert planets does not stay there for long.

For instance, Earth can sustain a stable climate for billions of years. In contrast, if another planet has less water, it will eventually lose all its water. Such a loss would make basic tasks, like regulating carbon dioxide levels, impossible. The subsequent desertification process would annihilate any local life, as temperatures on the planet would reach critical limits.

Although local species like sandworms, Fremen, or Jawas might not be able to thrive on Arrakis or Tatooine, such planets could still be colonized.

As a reminder, scientists have discovered whether humans could survive in the harsh deserts of the planet Arrakis from "Dune". Researchers simulated the climate on the planet and made several fascinating discoveries.