Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Is That Planet Habitable? Look To The Star First, New Study Cautions

Is That Planet Habitable? Look To The Star First, New Study Cautions:
Artist’s impression of the deep blue planet HD 189733b, based on observations from the Hubble Space Telescope. Credit: NASA/ESA.
Artist’s impression of the deep blue planet HD 189733b, based on observations from the Hubble Space Telescope. Credit: NASA/ESA.
Finding Earth 2.0, in the words of noted SETI researcher Jill Tarter, is something a lot of exoplanet searchers are hoping for one day. They’re trying not to narrow down their search to Sun-like stars, but also examine stars that are smaller, like red dwarfs.
A new study, however, cautions that the X-ray environment of these dwarfs may give us false positives. They looked at Earth-mass planets in the neighborhood of four stars, such as GJ 667 (which has three planets that could be habitable), and concluded it’s possible for oxygen to reside in these planets even in the absence of life.
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Read the rest of Is That Planet Habitable? Look To The Star First, New Study Cautions (217 words)

© Elizabeth Howell for Universe Today, 2013. |Permalink |No comment |
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