Red Dwarf Stars May Be Best Chance for Habitable Alien Planets

I know this has been brought up before, but it was mentioned again on space.com on Feb.23 and thought I would pass it along.

by Charles Q. Choi, SPACE.com Contributor
Stars known as red dwarfs might have larger habitable zones friendly to ‘life as we know it’ than once thought, researchers say.Red dwarfs, also known as M stars, are dim compared to stars like our sun and are just 10 to 20 percent as massive. They make up roughly three-quarters of the stars in the galaxy, and recently scientists found red dwarfs are far more common than before thought, making up at least 80 percent of the total number of stars.

The fact that red dwarfs are so very common has made astrobiologists wonder if they might be the best chance for discovering planets habitable to life as we know it. More and more planets are getting discovered around red dwarfs — for instance, a potentially habitable "super-Earth" at least 4.5 times the mass of Earth, GJ 667Cb, was recently found orbiting the red dwarf GJ 667C.

"More of these planets are being found, so research is moving from being theoretical and predictive to using actual data from extrasolar planets," said researcher Manoj Joshi, an atmospheric physicist at the University of East Anglia in England.

This artist's concept illustrates a young, red dwarf star surrounded by three planets. Such stars are dimmer and smaller than yellow stars like our sun, which makes them ideal targets for astronomers wishing to take images of planets outside our solar system, called exoplanets.

www.space.com...

What I find most incredible about this news is that in Egyptian lore, Nibiru was a red star. Also the star of Ra/Marduk, son of En.Ki/E.A./Ptah/Posidon. The Anunnaki lived on the moons surrounding the 12th planet. Read the Zecharia Sitchin book Gensis Revisited for all of the details.

reply to post by wutz4tom


Some other advantages in regards to finding a habitable planet around a Red Dwarf would be the long life span of the star itself and that about 20 out of the 30 nearest stars are Red Dwarfs

Maybe Lister and Cat, but Kryten is a robot and Rimmer is a hologram!

I am not sure that the red dwarf stars would be the best chance for a habitable planet.

Hrmm..

Ohh Maybe kochanski!!

reply to post by Oannes


Yes, to be honest that's what came to mind when I saw this as well. Even so I have my doubts, but do have an open mind.
Thnx

reply to post by mainidh


Please explain further? I don't understand.
Thnx

reply to post by iforget


That I did not know.
Thanks for the info.

reply to post by wutz4tom


Haha sorry, I was being a nerd.. off topic also..

en.wikipedia.org...

reply to post by mainidh


No problem friend..I was just curious..

Originally posted by wutz4tom
I know this has been brought up before, but it was mentioned again on space.com on Feb.23 and thought I would pass it along.

by Charles Q. Choi, SPACE.com Contributor
Stars known as red dwarfs might have larger habitable zones friendly to ‘life as we know it’ than once thought, researchers say.Red dwarfs, also known as M stars, are dim compared to stars like our sun and are just 10 to 20 percent as massive. They make up roughly three-quarters of the stars in the galaxy, and recently scientists found red dwarfs are far more common than before thought, making up at least 80 percent of the total number of stars.

The fact that red dwarfs are so very common has made astrobiologists wonder if they might be the best chance for discovering planets habitable to life as we know it. More and more planets are getting discovered around red dwarfs — for instance, a potentially habitable "super-Earth" at least 4.5 times the mass of Earth, GJ 667Cb, was recently found orbiting the red dwarf GJ 667Cc.

"More of these planets are being found, so research is moving from being theoretical and predictive to using actual data from extrasolar planets," said researcher Manoj Joshi, an atmospheric physicist at the University of East Anglia in England.

This artist's concept illustrates a young, red dwarf star surrounded by three planets. Such stars are dimmer and smaller than yellow stars like our sun, which makes them ideal targets for astronomers wishing to take images of planets outside our solar system, called exoplanets.

www.space.com...

edit on 24-2-2012 by wutz4tom because: (no reason given)

More on Red Dwarf Stars and GJ667C by elevenaugust

link

well the red dwarf reference has already been made so i'll just leave.....................

i don't think this makes too much sense.
wouldn't the goldilocks zone be the same size on any star, far enough to not get toasted and close enough to not freeze.
our only example of life on a planet is around our yellow star so by stats our yellow type of star is the most likely to find life.

our sun spits out lots of helium and hydrogen, what would you get from a red star.
what i say is based on knowing nothing so dont retaliate if you disagree, just state that you disagree.

Originally posted by listerofsmeg
well the red dwarf reference has already been made so i'll just leave.....................

i don't think this makes too much sense.
wouldn't the goldilocks zone be the same size on any star, far enough to not get toasted and close enough to not freeze.
our only example of life on a planet is around our yellow star so by stats our yellow type of star is the most likely to find life.

our sun spits out lots of helium and hydrogen, what would you get from a red star.
what i say is based on knowing nothing so dont retaliate if you disagree, just state that you disagree.

I think they are inferring that the "goldilocks' zone would be much larger around red dwarfs, thus giving more opportunities for life.