Sucks to be you, any aliens living anywhere near Proxima Centauri's record-smashing solar flare
- Reference: 1619087526
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/04/22/proxima_centauri_flare/
- Source link:
It was a cosmic belch so intense, it's now pretty clear the star cannot provide the right conditions to support familiar DNA-based life on its exoplanets.
[1]
On May 1, 2019, researchers led by the University of Colorado, Boulder, spotted a sudden burst of light erupting from Proxima Centauri unlike any other flare previously seen before.
[2]
SPF 9,000 needed at least ... An illustration of the Proxima Centauri flare. Source: NRAO/S. Dagnello
"The star went from normal to 14,000 times brighter when seen in ultraviolet wavelengths over the span of a few seconds," [3]said Meredith MacGregor, lead author of a study into the solar outburst, just [4]published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, and an assistant astrophysics professor at the American university. A pre-print of the paper is [5]here .
Using the data gathered from nine telescopes scattered across the Earth and in space, the team was able to calculate the power of the stellar explosion. "It's about 10 23 Watts," MacGregor told The Register on Wednesday.
[6]
"A standard light bulb is 60 Watts, so that's comparable to a whopping 10 21 light bulbs."
Habitable-zone exoplanet potentially spotted just around the corner in Alpha Centauri using latest telescope technique [7]READ MORE
Red dwarf stars like Proxima Centauri emit flares more frequently than stable main-sequence stars like our Sun. A [8]previous study reporting the discovery of a rocky exoplanet lying in Proxima Centauri's habitable zone in 2016 ignited fresh hope and excitement that alien life could exist right under our noses in the closest stellar system, just 4.2 light years away.
But the latest observations of Proxima Centauri, captured using nine telescopes scattered around Earth and across space, show that life as we know it probably wouldn't survive in such harsh conditions.
[9]
"Given the size of this flare and how frequently they occur, any life on the planet would have to look very different from what we see on Earth. UV radiation from flares like this could strip away the planet's atmosphere, and damage the DNA of lifeforms on the surface," MacGregor told us.
The record-breaking flare was a hundred times more powerful than ones ejected from our Sun, and lasted just seven seconds. Proxima Centauri's two known planets are repeatedly bathed in the intense radiation from the star's flares, making it difficult for them to sustain an atmosphere let alone alien life.
"A lot of the exoplanets that we've found so far are around these types of stars. But the catch is that they're way more active than our sun. They flare much more frequently and intensely," MacGregor said.
"If there was life on the planet nearest to Proxima Centauri, it would have to look very different than anything on Earth. A human being on this planet would have a bad time." ®
Get our [10]Tech Resources
[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YIGdnmab4JpT14VrQ7l60gAAAIk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[2] https://regmedia.co.uk/2021/04/21/proxima.jpg
[3] https://www.colorado.edu/today/2021/04/21/proxima-flare
[4] https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/abf14c
[5] https://arxiv.org/abs/2104.09519
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YIGdnmab4JpT14VrQ7l60gAAAIk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2021/02/11/adaptive_optics_exoplanet/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2016/08/24/exoplanet_found_right_under_our_noses_may_be_earthlike/
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YIGdnmab4JpT14VrQ7l60gAAAIk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: they doubt the star provides the right conditions to support DNA-based life
Ah, yes. The Sunbeam. Some Boskonian loose planets just got vaporized.
Was it?
"Was that the Earth-shattering KABOOM ?"
Marvin the Martian
Proxima Centauri is a glimpse of our own future
In a few billion years, our Sun will become a red giant, just like Proxima Centauri. At that point, a tentacled boffin from planet ZX527125-OF846b will present his findings to his fellow amoebas in much the same terms.
Re: Proxima Centauri is a glimpse of our own future
Proxima Centauri is a red dwarf star, not a red giant. Red dwarfs are smaller than stars like our sun, so they don't glow as bright.
When our sun goes red giant, I think Earth will have problems other than solar flares. Being inside of the star's envelope might be a bigger problem :D
Re: Proxima Centauri is a glimpse of our own future
It's not being inside the envelope that's the problem. The damage comes from being hit by the stamp.
Re: Proxima Centauri is a glimpse of our own future
I'm afraid it's all over for life on Earth looooong before our Sun leaves the mainstream and becomes a Red Giant, if the Earth remains in its present orbit.
Stars in the mainstream slowly become more luminous (brighter), and this causes the Goldilocks zone (between the frost line and the soot line) to migrate outward during the life of the star. The Earth should cross the soot line (where all water boils away) in less than a billion years.
So, during the next billion years mankind (or whatever comes after us) needs to figure out how to move the Earth to a higher orbit, or to launch a giant space wig to shield us from some of the sunlight!
Re: move the Earth to a higher orbit,
Like this?
The 'Earth Rocket': a Method for Keeping the Earth in the Habitable Zone
Mark A. Wessels
The Sun is expected to increase its radiant output by about 10% per billion years. The rate at which the radius of the Earth's orbit would need to increase in order to keep the present value of the Sun's radiant flux at the Earth constant is calculated. The mechanical power required to achieve this is also calculated. Remarkably, this is a small fraction (2.3%) of the total solar flux currently intercepted by the Earth. Treating the Earth itself as a rocket, the thrust required to increase the orbit is found, as well as the rate of mass ejection. The Earth has sufficient mass to maintain this rate for several billion years, allowing for the possibility that the Earth could remain habitable to biological life for billions of years into the future.
https://arxiv.org/abs/1711.08550
Re: move the Earth to a higher orbit,
Moving the Earth out of the soot zone is a great idea, but would being farther away from the increase the chances that Earth would be it by asteroids?
Re: move the Earth to a higher orbit,
If we have the technology and resources available to move the Earth into a different orbit, asteroids aren't likely to present much of an issue.
Re: move the Earth to a higher orbit,
Sunlight is absorbed by the daytime side of the planet and will be re-radiated as IR. The longer any part of the surface is in daylight, the more IR it will radiate, so the day to night boundary will be the peak radiation zone. Conveniently, that's right where you need to thrust from to put us in a higher orbit. If only we didn't have all this CO2 stopping the IR from escaping we may have a chance after all.
Re: move the Earth to a higher orbit,
The last I heard, the Earth rotates. I've been told that is the reason for day and night. Where would one place any kind of rocket to move the Earth to a higher orbit?
Re: move the Earth to a higher orbit,
On the moon and use that to gently nudge us outwards. Its about 1/16th the SA of the earth so well bit enough to do the job.
Re: Proxima Centauri is a glimpse of our own future
"So, during the next billion years mankind (or whatever comes after us) needs to figure out how to move the Earth to a higher orbit"
There was a Stephen Baxter novel that addressed this: the idea was to redirect asteroids and comets onto a trajectory towards Earth in such a way as to give it a gravity assist to raise its orbit.
Re: Proxima Centauri is a glimpse of our own future
Larry Niven also looked at it in A World Out of Time
Re: Proxima Centauri is a glimpse of our own future
What will happen to money?
Will love sustain it
Re: Proxima Centauri is a glimpse of our own future
Yes, our sun will become a red giant.
But, *ahem* Proxima is a red dwarf (a K dwarf). A vast difference. Principally, our sun won't employ Chris Barrie, Crag Charles, Danny John-Jules and Robert Llewellyn.
Re: Proxima Centauri is a glimpse of our own future
well, that is too bad!
Re: Proxima Centauri is a glimpse of our own future
Wrong end of the scale: It's actually a red dwarf , not giant... But I agree with the idea, crap happens, and not only to others...
Edit: Oops, was too slow
Re: Proxima Centauri is a glimpse of our own future
Very likely Pascal, except that amoebas don't have tentacles, they have pseudopods.
Re: amoebas don't have tentacles, they have pseudopods.
I think a highly advanced and technologically proficient species - whether of amoeboid type or not - will just give itself any damn sort of appendage it wants to have. :-)
Re: Proxima Centauri is a glimpse of our own future
> amoebas don't have tentacles, they have pseudopods.
That's just your opinion, they think we have pseudotentacles
Re: Proxima Centauri is a glimpse of our own future
The bigger they are, the harder they fall... live fast, die young, and leave an attractive body.
Works just as well for main sequence stars as it did for James Dean.
> it would have to look very different than anything on Earth
Without an atmosphere, it definitely would...
Now it's not like we didn't know that red dwarfs ("mass challenged stars"?) are prone to violent flares which would tend to sterilize their planets. But life could survive simple UV flares, for instance deep under water. They could even be beneficial, for instance triggering a plankton bloom in depths which normally don't get enough light. So the only question is, are those flares really able to strip atmospheres? No atmosphere means no liquid water, and the whole "Goldilocks Zone" thing falls apart: Without an atmosphere those planets would be as dead as our moon.
"So the only question is, are those flares really able to strip atmospheres?"
And for an answer to that, let's turn to Mercury! So Mr Mercury, are you a great place to party? Do molecules feel completely uninhibited and fling off their electrons like they're going out of fashion...?
*tumbleweed*
Seriously, these K dwarfs are so dim that their habitable zone abut their coronas. (Proxima Centauri is a thousandth the luminosity of the sun.) These flares will be in the face of any planet. And being that close to a more modest sun is still lethal. Mercury is a bit small, I grant (half the mass of mars) but I don't imagine a heavier planet would have seen much of a difference.
And if a planet round a K dwarf has hung onto some air, it's certainly a hellish place because the planet is guaranteed to be phase locked.
K dwarfs are a non starter for life.
Proxima Centauri is actually an M-class dwarf star, not a K-class. M dwarfs suffer violent flares because convection extends all the way to the hydrogen fusing core. Alpha Centauri B is a K-class dwarf, and is pretty quiet. K class stars have smaller cores and less UV/X-ray radiation than G class stars, and are good candidates for Earth like planets.
OBAFGKM
You're right. Sorry.
M dwarfs were even lower down my list...
So it's like stepping off the plane in Greece?
No this is even worse than Australia
Graphic used?
It's a shame that the graphic image shown, has been used for this article, as the "belch" was NOT in the visible wavelength (as seen by humans - another lifeform MIGHT have seen it, if they were looking in the right direction during the 7 seconds that the "belch" was occuring).
So, it is unlikely that any life near to the star would have seen anything at all, though they might have experienced a warming sensation, before they were roasted to a crisp... :-(
"A standard light bulb is 60 Watts"
Energy-saving LED or fluorescent bulbs are not yet standard in Boulder?
"An illustration of the Proxima Centauri flare."
Possibly last remaining acceptable use of photoshop 5's lens flare effect.
Was JJ Abrams involved?
Guess what tune is going through my head?
Can't stop humming it
Re: Guess what tune is going through my head?
something by Disaster Area?
Re: Guess what tune is going through my head?
It's cold outside
There's no kind of atmosphere ...
Exactly the subject of the novel "The Three-Body Problem"
"The Three-Body Problem" is the first of an award-winning science fiction series of 3 novels by Chinese author Liu Cixin (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Three-Body_Problem_(novel)
The premise is that the characteristics of the triple-star Centauri system are inimical to the development of native intelligent life because of the frequent scouring of the planets by intense radiation flares. But what if that caused life there to develop faster and tougher than humanity on Earth? And what if those aliens decided that Earth was a much nicer and more habitable planet handily located at their nearest neighbouring star?
Red dwarf systems are always dead
Red Dwarf systems are always dead because they are too cold. However there is possibly life around one or both stars in the Alpha Centauri A/B systems based on the mysterious and unexplained signal from the direction of Proxima Centauri at 982.002Mhz (known as BLC1). There have been no other explanation that point to the radio signal to be Earth created since it didn't move as any nearby object would have moved. Scientists are as always busying denying that this might even be a slight possibility that this signal is not from Earth. The radio signal was detected several times over a time period of 30 hours. While confirmation is good it is a bit difficult to get that with random signals that are detected on Earth by random chance.
Its going to be a long while until we accept the fact that the human race is not a lone in the universe. This is true even if claims otherwise are being told in the media and by scientists.
they doubt the star provides the right conditions to support DNA-based life
At least, any DNA-based life that *was* there, isn't any more.
On the other hand... anyone seen any Lensmen playing around there?