superflares tagged posts

Planets of Red Dwarf Stars may face Oxygen Loss in Habitable zones

In this artist's concept, X-ray and extreme ultraviolet light from a young red dwarf star cause ions to escape from an exoplanet's atmosphere. Scientists have developed a model that estimates the oxygen ion escape rate on planets around red dwarfs, which plays an important role in determining an exoplanet's habitability. (screen shot from video) Credit: NASA Goddard/Conceptual Image Lab; Michael Lentz, animator/Genna Duberstein, producer

In this artist’s concept, X-ray and extreme ultraviolet light from a young red dwarf star cause ions to escape from an exoplanet’s atmosphere. Scientists have developed a model that estimates the oxygen ion escape rate on planets around red dwarfs, which plays an important role in determining an exoplanet’s habitability. (screen shot from video) Credit: NASA Goddard/Conceptual Image Lab; Michael Lentz, animator/Genna Duberstein, producer

The search for life beyond Earth starts in habitable zones could potentially allow liquid water to pool on a planet’s surface. New NASA research suggests some of these zones might not actually be able to support life due to frequent stellar eruptions from young red dwarf stars...

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Young Sun-like Star shows a Magnetic field was Critical for Life on the early Earth

In this artist's illustration, the young Sun-like star Kappa Ceti is blotched with large starspots, a sign of its high level of magnetic activity. New research shows that its stellar wind is 50 times stronger than our Sun's. As a result, any Earth-like planet would need a magnetic field in order to protect its atmosphere and be habitable. The physical sizes of the star and planet and distance between them are not to scale. Credit: M. Weiss/CfA

In this artist’s illustration, the young Sun-like star Kappa Ceti is blotched with large starspots, a sign of its high level of magnetic activity. New research shows that its stellar wind is 50 times stronger than our Sun’s. As a result, any Earth-like planet would need a magnetic field in order to protect its atmosphere and be habitable. The physical sizes of the star and planet and distance between them are not to scale. Credit: M. Weiss/CfA

Nearly 4B years ago, life arose on Earth. Life appeared because our planet had a rocky surface, liquid water, and a blanketing atmosphere. But life thrived thanks to another necessary ingredient: the presence of a protective magnetic field...

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Radiation Blasts leave most Earth-like planet Uninhabitable

The planet Kepler-438b is shown here in front of its violent parent star. It is regularly irradiated by huge flares of radiation, which could render the planet uninhabitable. Here the planet's atmosphere is shown being stripped away. Credit: With credit to Mark A Garlick/University of Warwick

The planet Kepler-438b is shown here in front of its violent parent star. It is regularly irradiated by huge flares of radiation, which could render the planet uninhabitable. Here the planet’s atmosphere is shown being stripped away. Credit: With credit to Mark A Garlick/University of Warwick

The most Earth-like planet could have been made uninhabitable by vast quantities of radiation.The atmosphere of the planet, Kepler-438b, is thought to have been stripped away as a result of radiation emitted from a superflaring red dwarf star, Kepler-438. Regularly occurring every few hundred days, the superflares are approximately 10X more powerful than those ever recorded on the sun and equivalent to the same energy as 100 billion megatons of TNT.

While superflares themselves are unlikely to have a ...

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