![]() ![]() Like ancient explorers who looked to the stars to guide them to new worlds, astronomers today use stars to discover worlds many light years beyond our solar system. M stars are also much brighter when they are young, for up to a billion years after they form, with energy that could boil off oceans on any planets that might someday be in the habitable zone. Stellar flares – explosive releases of magnetic energy – are much more frequent and energetic from young M stars than young Sun-like stars. One example of an M star, TRAPPIST-1, is known to host seven Earth-size rocky planets.īut the turbulent youth of M stars presents problems for potential life. They are also frugal with their fuel, and could shine on for over a trillion years. They are the most common star type in the galaxy, comprising about 75 percent of all the stars in the universe. M stars do offer some advantages for in the search for habitable planets. ![]() ![]() Also, K stars have less extreme activity in their youth than the universe’s dimmest stars, called M stars or “red dwarfs.” Why? First, K stars live a very long time - 17 billion to 70 billion years, compared to 10 billion years for the Sun - giving plenty of time for life to evolve. To narrow the search, they must figure out: What kinds of stars are most likely to host habitable planets?Ī new study finds a particular class of stars called K stars, which are dimmer than the Sun but brighter than the faintest stars, may be particularly promising targets for searching for signs of life. Scientists looking for signs of life beyond our solar system face major challenges, one of which is that there are hundreds of billions of stars in our galaxy alone to consider. ![]()
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