Dec 12, 2022 08:15 PM
(This post was last modified: Dec 13, 2022 07:43 AM by C C.)
https://www.universetoday.com/158889/lif...good-time/
EXCERPTS: The nearest known exoplanet to Earth, the planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, experiences some pretty nasty space weather from its parent star. But previous work on the space weather of Proxima relied on a lot of assumptions. The bad news is that new research has confirmed the grim picture.
The nearest star to Earth, Proxima Centauri, hosts a small rocky world [Proxima b] in the habitable zone of that star. The habitable zone is important because that’s the region that astronomers believe where a planet can potentially host liquid water. Too close to a star and the intense radiation will simply boil away any water. Too far from a star and the planet won’t receive enough warmth, and all of its water will just turn to ice.
[...] Unfortunately for any life that may call that planet home, they’re going to have a rough time of it. Proxima Centauri is a red dwarf star, with only a fraction of the mass of the Sun. Because of their small sizes, the nuclear fusion cores of red dwarf stars are much closer to their surfaces. This makes their surfaces much more chaotic than stars like the Sun, and that increased turbulence amplifies incredibly strong magnetic fields... (MORE - missing details)
EXCERPTS: The nearest known exoplanet to Earth, the planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, experiences some pretty nasty space weather from its parent star. But previous work on the space weather of Proxima relied on a lot of assumptions. The bad news is that new research has confirmed the grim picture.
The nearest star to Earth, Proxima Centauri, hosts a small rocky world [Proxima b] in the habitable zone of that star. The habitable zone is important because that’s the region that astronomers believe where a planet can potentially host liquid water. Too close to a star and the intense radiation will simply boil away any water. Too far from a star and the planet won’t receive enough warmth, and all of its water will just turn to ice.
[...] Unfortunately for any life that may call that planet home, they’re going to have a rough time of it. Proxima Centauri is a red dwarf star, with only a fraction of the mass of the Sun. Because of their small sizes, the nuclear fusion cores of red dwarf stars are much closer to their surfaces. This makes their surfaces much more chaotic than stars like the Sun, and that increased turbulence amplifies incredibly strong magnetic fields... (MORE - missing details)