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New discoveries of exoplanets have accumulated rapidly in recent years, and whenever astronomers confirm the existence of another planet, there is always an immediate interest in knowing whether or not this planet could support life. For many worlds recently discovered, the answer is a firm "no". They are either too hot, too cold, or big balls of gas, but when we discover that a rocky world is at the right distance from his star the possibility of life remains.
A new research paper published in Letters of Astronomy and Astrophysics Explain how even some planets in the so-called "Goldilocks" area of their parent stars can be condemned to a hard spell without the ability to sustain life as we know it.
For a planet to support life as we know it on Earth, it must have an atmosphere. Many young planets are thought to form atmospheres very early, which is good news for anyone hoping that humanity will one day find an extraterrestrial life in the cosmos, but it is a little caught.
Young planets are often orbiting a young star, and scientists are now starting to realize more than ever how difficult it is for a planet to hang on to its atmosphere in front of a young person. active star.
The paper explains that the abundant M-dwarf stars, considered the most abundant in our part of the country, can make life very difficult for the planets that orbit them. Unlike stars like our own Sun, M-dwarf stars traverse particularly active streaks at a young age, emitting high amounts of X-rays and ultraviolet rays for billions of years.
It is this radiation that can rapidly strip a planet close to its atmosphere. In fact, even a planet whose atmosphere would be similar to Earth could lose it completely from here a million years if it gravitated around a particularly active young star. This is not good news for extraterrestrial hunters, but it tells us a lot about the specificity of the Earth and could help us refine our search for extraterrestrial life in the future.
Image Source: ESO / M. Kornmesser
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