Could life exist around red dwarf stars?
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- Опубліковано 5 лют 2025
- Could life exist around red dwarf stars? That's one of the most important questions in our search for life in the universe. Red dwarf stars are the most common type of star and they live for up to several trillion years. So if life can exist around red dwarf stars, then life might be very common in the universe. In fact, the two closest planets to the Sun, Proxima Centauri and Barnard's star, each host potentially habitable planets (Proxima b and Barnard b).
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🧭 References:
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Dong et al 2017 arxiv.org/abs/...
Boutle et al 2017 arxiv.org/abs/...
DelGino et al 2017 arxiv.org/abs/...
Wandel 2017 arxiv.org/abs/...
Howard et al 2018 arxiv.org/abs/...
MacGregor et al 2018 arxiv.org/abs/...
Mullan & Bias 2018 arxiv.org/abs/...
Ribas et al 2018 arxiv.org/abs/...
Lingam & Loeb 2019 arxiv.org/abs/...
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Well there is one red dwarf that doesn't burn powerful radiation it's call teegraden star and it have planets 2 but both of them are in the Goldilocks zone
One of the few times that UA-cam's recommendation algorithm give me a true gem
Thank you so much Elementus, I'm glad to have you along for the ride!
By far hands down the best video I have seen to date that discusses life around Red Dwarfs. Covers most of the important controllers and factors for habitability around these stars and comes to a realistic conclusion based on them. Thanks a lot!
Thank you so much, can't tell you how much I appreciate the kind words!
Thank you for those kind words, I really do appreciate them!
Agree.
This channel must be one of the best kept secrets of UA-cam's Astronomy world so far! I am really glad I stumbled upon your channel this early and wish you nothing but success in the near future. I am very sure it will grow massively soon, because the content is just absolutely magnificent! Very well researched and presented. All the best and greetings from Germany. Keep up the great work!
Wow, I can't tell you how grateful I am for your comment and kind words. Thank you so much!
Thanks, I really appreciate it. I'm glad you stumbled onto it as well!
Another great presentation. Very informative. Keep up the great work 👍
Thank you very much!
Great presentation. I like the clear and concise explanation without an excess of special effects and annoying background music which makes your presentations relaxing yet very interesting.
Thank you so much alborada777, I appreciate it! I'm still trying to figure out the best balance of production value and actually being able to get the video made :)
I try to imagine what an alien civilizatons would be like. Their history, culture, architecture and art and music and of course what their lifeforms would look like. But I will never know in this life.
I think they'd look pretty much like us but have different abilities. Maybe they can breath under water or change the color of their skin like a chameleon.
Maybe the tidally locked side of the planet is covered with water, ruled by the water precies, and the opposite side is cold, dark dirt, ruled by a nocturnal subsurface species.
The planet does not have a perfect elliptical orbit, causing the tide to surge yearly. And that is when the nocturnal subsurface species briefly interact with the diurnal water species.
For a civilisation to have music presupposes that alien lifeforms have 'hearing' in similar fashion to ourselves. They may or may not have that facility...we really have no idea what's out there.
Actually, you do know. Think about how absolutely unbelievably large the Universe is. Think about what would make sense for any form of life (e.g. IF they are large and have eyes then the eyes are at the top of the body), do that a couple more times and then add a little bit of fantasy to it, and somewhere in this practically infinite Universe there will almost undoubtedly be a life-form resembling what you're thinking about. However many times you think about one, you'll be right. Almost certainly in the present but absolutely, undeniably in the future. It's a lovely thought tbh.
@@Scipio-Africannabis It depends on how rare life is. Life could be so rare we are the only (intelligent) life in the universe
11:57 Red Dwarfs truly do age like fine wine, unlike the Sun...
It would be much simpler to focus on singular orange and yellow dwarf stars in the search for life.
I read somewhere that orange dwarfs are the most likely to harbor life, which is ironic since the only type of stars that harbors life as we know of - the sun - is a yellow dwarf.
Your videos always have a great representation of facts. You are one of my favorite channels on astronomy
Wow, thank you so much. I'm very flattered!
I have no idea why you have so few subscribers, you deserve way, way more. I didn't expect to get ALL the information I wanted to get about life on (nearby) red dwarfs, but, to my surprise, I did. Also, everything you have said in this video seems to match up with reliable sources (i.e. is correct), which, again, is a rarity for a UA-cam video. Hats off to you, sir!
Thank you so much Max Khovansky, I appreciate it!
the least annoying astronomy channel, precise and straight to the point. thank you.
oh, and lets not forget that it's consistent with the information that people need or want to hear.
Thanks, I'm glad I'm not that annoying :)
Bro your thumbnails are some of the best I have seen on UA-cam
Thanks so much! I try to be a little different.
Wow! Excellent video! I'm an astronomy enthusiast with no formal science background whatsoever but I feel like I understood everything you presented, without it having to be dumbed down to an elementary level! I look forward to your future videos!
Thank you I really appreciate your feedback! I think with a little curiosity and imagination we can all learn. After all, if I can do it...
Awesome video about Red Dwarfs and especially for including the point about the 3:2 spin resonanze. I have always wondered about that, and how likely it was so be a loophole for making planets around Red Dwarfs more viable for life.
I’m so happy that I stumbled upon your channel as I’m a big astronomy fan and I’m so fascinated about space ,planets,different stars within our known universe and perhaps another earthlike planet to live on when our sun happens to go supernova. You’re very knowledgeable about red dwarf planets . There’s a video called Evacuate Earth-death by a Neutron Star and in this video it discusses Barnards Star and earth 2 ,a planet where we could possibly migrate to should the earth be threatened by a Neutron Star. The ark that would take humans to earth 2 would take about 100 years because the ship would be powered by antimatter,otherwise it would take much longer and certainly not within our lifetime. We wouldn’t survive that journey. I highly recommend everyone to watch this video called Evacuate Earth: Death by a Neutron Star I highly recommend your videos to everyone!!
Thank you Carla, I so appreciate your kind words!
excellent and very helpful followup to your earlier video, Christian -- the questions it provoked are well clarified here. nice work!
Thanks Victor!
Best video I have ever seen about the possibility of life around red dwarfs. Awesome work and presentation!
Wow, thank you! I like your screen name :)
Another really awesome video. You obviously put a lot of work into these. I'm surprised you've not got a bigger following!
Thanks! Yes it took a lot of time to make. Appreciate the feedback!
Martin Smyrk , trust me, if he keeps uploading awesome videos as he is doing, his following is going to be huge. His videos have all the right elements that makes them high quality. They 're well put together and informative. And most importantly, he speaks very clearly with an impeccably soothing diction. He is on the right track to blowing up on UA-cam. I have since subscribed to his channel and have told my friends about him.
Thank you so much for the kind words, Sunday. I'm very appreciative of them.
Very educational and interesting, thank you for taking the time to create it.
I love these videos, but only because they condense alot of information into a short space of times I have to watch them a few times and then think about them for a few hours to get to the stage where I think I have generally got the jist of some of it.
Your videos are clean, informative, and some of the best astronomy videos on UA-cam. Very happy to have found this channel today and now must go explore your playlist :)
Thank you so much, and I'm very happy to have you along for the ride!
I would love to believe that life forms easily, everywhere it can and as soon as possible. However, lately I've warmed up to the concept of panspermia, as life only appears to have arisen (sparked, genesis'ed, Peter Gabriel'ed, whatever) once on our cozy planet. I can't wait to be proven wrong when we find novel life under Mars, Europa, etc.
Yeah, that would be very cool if we find evidence not just of life, but of a second genesis.
Thanks for a great video and a Happy New Year.
Tbh I feel checking the moons of gas giants around red dwarfs might be a good idea. Moons would be tidally locked to the planet and not the star meanining they would still have some semblance of a day night cycle, they would be protected by the gas giant’s magnetic field reducing the effect flares would have on their atmosphere; and tidal heating might be a thing too which would keep them geologically active longer.
The downside of course is that some of the closer moons to the gas giants would be subject to levels of radiation lethal to humans, but hey, if life evolved in that environment it would have billions and billions of years to find a way to cope with what we could never survive. After all, the deep oceans are lethal to us too, and they are crawling with life
I agree I think exomoons are the best place to look too especially since we have found a lot of warmer closer to star gas giants so it’s probably exomoons similar in composition to Europa and Enceladus but in a warmer climate
Great video, although I think the TRAPPIST-1 system would have deserved a mention here. Not just because of the seven detected Earth-like planets, but also because if I'm correct, it does not flare up that often, as it is also older than Proxima.
So far, the most informative video I've seen regarding about life around red dwarf stars. You should definitely look forward to doing other stars as well, perhaps F-type stars. Definitely subscribing and liking the video. Excellent work!
No point in watching the video. We already know the answer is NO.
any life existing there wouldn't last long considering how unstable and active these stars are... so moot point discussing them.
Yes, but you took the time to watch the video, which suggests you're interested in understanding more about the subject, which is why I made it. Cheers!
Another consideration is the recent study that suggests that red dwarf flares occur mainly on the stars' outer latitudes. This is unlike larger main sequence stars that tend to flare from their equatorial regions and thus impact their planets on their planes of the ecliptic. If true, this offers much hope for life bearing planets.
Very clear and well communicated
As an Astronomy novice I really loved your dissertation.
Thank you so much curlywolfone, I appreciate it!
Should do a video on brown dwarf systems. Would most likely lead to better results.
Yeah, talk about the strangest of strange ducks!
Superb! I hope we find some habitable planets around red dwarfs!
Based on this analysis, could you do a segment on if and how planets might re-acquire an atmosphere?
Excellent summary on this topic.
Thank you so much Ohio Dan, I appreciate it!
I just found your channel. I am not really an astronomy person but your presentation makes me want to be one, thanks.
That's the best thing I've ever heard. Thank you!
The mantra of Radiation Sources is "Dosage & Distance", as the distance increases from a source, the dosage drops incrementally. With Red Dwarf's they're so cool that it's planets must revolve so close to replicate Earth type Temps. that they are Bathed in Radiation
I think the problem for a red dwarf is going to be that the habitable zone is going to be moved so far in that you run into a situation where you might have title locking and that would not be good for life
You answered my question very well. Thanks (SUBSCRIBED)
Glad to have you along for the ride!
this topic bothered me for some time. thanks for content
Great information..
Hey, those yellow-brown patches of grass shown in the background of the video are patches of wild bentgrass. There is no practical way to get rid of them. Fertilizing the lawn more often will help reduce those patches.
👽Very well done Christian! Lots to think about👨🚀
Thank you my friend!
Great video. Very informative!
Thanks!
A good balanced video, well presented too. I'm looking forward to watching the one about red dwarf stars. Cheers : )
Thank you, I’m glad you enjoyed it!
As a physics with astronomy graduate, and an H2G2 fan (Barnard's star reference0)and BBC "Red Dwarf" fan this is great in every way possible!
Thanks Andy, I couldn't help but notice the overlaps as well :)
This was brilliant, thank you!
My pleasure and thanks!
Great video
Its still possible that Alpha Centaury A and B has planets around em too
I could just imagine an alien species investigating our system and making assumptions about weather earth is suitable for life or not, and weighing all the positives and negatives.
Just ran across you video. Very nice. I have thought about this problem for a while. My thought is that if the Red Dwarf there may be a better shot at life on a moon rather than planet in a Red Dwarf system. This would help with the heat issue. A large gas giant may also help shield it with a larger magnetic field (and hopefully not fry it with a radiation belt). I though through this several years when I first learned that any planet would most likely be tidally locked.and never seen anyone discuss this option.
Very well done!! Do a coop with John Michael Gotier please
Thanks! John’s a great guy and we probably should do something together again :)
Enjoyed the video. Along with the cold temps and occasional flares, shouldn't gravity on 'Barnard b' (mass of at least three times that of the Earth) also be an issue for Earthlings? I'm already heavy enough here, lol.
It’s sad to know that humanity will probably never be able to visit these worlds in our lifetimes
Nicely explained
I have two questions about Proxima b. 1. Is it possible (given a large enough inclination) for Proxima b to be a gas giant. 2. If Proxima b were a gas giant, what about the possibility of it having a large rocky moon. The magnetosphere of Proxima b could protect the moon’s atmosphere if it orbited close enough to have say a 24 hour orbit; and tidal forces from Proxima b would probably cause the moon to have its own magnetosphere to protect against Proxima b’s magnetosphere.
Such a moon would be gravitationally locked to Proxima b. But the side facing away from the planet would have a 24 hour day night cycle with Proxima Centauri transiting the sky much like the sun does with Earth. If the whole moon were habitable, the side facing Proxima b would not see the planet move across the sky. Instead Proxima b would stay in one spot but would go through the “phases of the moon” with a waxing crescent at “sunrise”; a “full moon” at noon; a waning crescent at “sunset” and a “new moon” through the night.
That's a really interesting idea. The main problem however is that if Proxima b is a gas giant, it will have a very strong magnetosphere which would irradiate its moon rather than protect it. This is the problem the Galilean moons have at Jupiter, for example. So once again we're forced underground for the best chance of finding life. Bummer!
Launch Pad Astronomy even if the moon had its own magnetosphere; which while not strong enough to completely shield it from stellar flares, is strong enough to help protect it from the radiation of the gas giant?
@@davidroddini1512 right, *if* the moon had a strong magnetosphere to protect it from both the star and planet's radiation (which is just more of the star's radiation that's been bottled up in the planet's magnetic field).
Christian, have you done a vid on K stars? They seem like a good compromise between longevity and stability, but no one ever seems to talk about them. They're not as common as red dwarfs and they don't live as long, but they seem like they might be much better candidates for life, or at least complex life.
G and K stars are probably the best candidates for life for the reasons you mention. I haven't done a vid on K-type stars in particular, but plan to discuss the evolution of sunlike stars (F-K) at some point.
Can I get a t-shirt with I look confused because I have been self-educating with launchpad astronomy on it. It could really help to explain alot.
There’s a lot to dive into :)
That moment, which for me was about 8 minutes in, when all you hear is "barrgh narrgh starrgh" XD
Good vid, as always.
Oh no, was there something wrong with the audio?
The biggest problem with red dwarf stars is that planets in their habitable zones might be tidally locked. Tidal locking would mean one hot side and a cold one, unless the atmosphere is substantial enough to redistribute the heat. At the outer edge of the habitable zone, tidal locking is much less likely.
We could make that system ourselves. Run long lines of pipes to the "hot" side to heat up fluid and pumped back to the dark side to give heat and energy to civilisation. Much like how Iceland uses geothermal energy right now. I think if we've managed to get that far into space, we'd have something figured out. Hell we may even get to a point where we don't even need a star at all
There are also K type stars, which are more stable than red dwarfs, there are a bit cooler than our star but still warmer than a red dwarf and the second most common type of star in the galaxy. They provide good hope to find life.
Agreed. G and K types seem like the best bet.
@@LaunchPadAstronomy maybe you could do a video on those stars and the prospects for life on those types of stars
Maybe the plants use energy from the flares. Maybe life breaths different gas
Only if they evolve massive resistances to the intense radiation from the flares and being so close. Highly unlikely.
Nice background. Where are you located? I would guess the south east, maybe Virginia?
I'm thinking of writing a sci-fi book and wanted one of the aliens' planet to orbit a red dwarf. This video really helped me to flesh out their world and appearance, as well as come up with a little bit of history for them. OK so I've taken so scientific liberties but that is why it's called science fiction. Thanks for this video
That’s fantastic, best of luck on your novel!
An eternal sunset seems beautiful
Chill, birds... Im learning stuff.
Why does everyone think life on the SURFACE on a planet is the only possibility? ... Most life would be found BENEATH the surface.
This is somewhat addressed at 9:09. An iron core could provide enough geothermal energy to produce life in subsurface oceans.
In my opinion, life on the surface is the most profitable because of the photosynthesis, meanwhile if you are underground, photosynthesis from the sun is quite impossible, correct me if I'm wrong.
@@luckyabdurrahman1085 Sure, there is no photosynthesis, but actually life could have started there, and migrated towards the surface. In 2007, 1.4 billion year old fossils of deep-sea microbes were found, and that supports the theory that life might have started there, and not in shallow seas.
Hi Christian another great presentation,I recently heard about a new telescope 'event horizon' that's looking at black holes would love to hear your views,worth a video?
Stay tuned... :)
@@LaunchPadAstronomyof course ;)
Ice planets could have water under a protective layer of ice. An X-Ray flare might just melt some ice temporarily which would then refreeze. The ice and water could protect life down in the water layer from the radiation. Since the surface is usually froze it doesn't matter there's no atmosphere.
I really enjoy your content and presentation. I have a question regarding a statement you made that the planet orbiting Proxima Centauri could not be observed with the Extremely Large Telescopes which should see first light 2020s. I recall reading that a 30 meter telescope would be required to resolve the planet. The E-ELT is 39 meters and will have a coronagraph to block the M-Dwarfs light and will be in the Southern Hemisphere. 😀 What factor do you think will not allow imaging the planet?
Thanks!
There are red dwarfs out there that are very quiet when it comes to flares. Such as Gliese 887
Life evolving on a planet anywhere in our Milky Way galaxy alone will take a unique I say very unique circumstance to find all the right ingredients that can support life, especially intelligent life..it would be very interesting if we could ever find the answers to any of these questions.
I just found channel today and I have a question but it may be dumb but I'll ask anyways LOL,
How long would it take us to get to Proxima B and its sun?
Glad you dropped by! Obviously it depends on how fast we could accelerate. The fastest vehicle we ever built is Voyager 1. At 60,000 km/hr, it would need about 76,000 years to reach Proxima Centauri. Obviously we need to go a little faster than that.
Now we get a signal from Proxima Centauri...
Life has to be ordered. Yes, you can expect there to be a hole(s) in the fabrication of time and distance. It's a physical fabric of woven forces. It works great at larger scales (and falls apart at smaller scales). It isn't much of anything at smaller scales and it isn't much of anything when compared to infinity at least in our region of space. On small scales, there isn't much taking place because there is not much room for much of anything to take place. One scary thing is when particles can be connected regardless of distance because that puts things beyond our control. FYI, things never were in our control. We have been out of control almost since our inception. We are things that cannot make ourselves and we cannot even repair ourselves because we don't know how we were made. The best we can do is to see that we were made and are repaired by a preexisting written set of instructions. When our set of instructions become corrupted, they fail to repair us and we die. We hope for a better day when truth and understanding will be able to prolong our days and that takes a lot of work. We have serious issues aside from our physical well being. If lies were banned, we would be doing a lot better since so many people are confused by the lies they are told so their actions are far from reasonable or sensible. Many lifetimes of study is not enough to make things right because of how confused people are. People refer to their ancestors as goat-herders and that kind of disrespect is not conducive to learning. Infinite regress of greater and greater power and wisdom of the sort that made us can only arrive at the all knowing, all powerful, eternal Maker of time and space where we find ourselves. An inferior maker would self destruct. Our Maker is holy and altogether right. As wrong as we are, we can't even understand what is true and right and then again, we are dying because of it. We don't have all wisdom, understanding and knowledge. We are looking for whatever is left of us to be salvaged. Only our Maker can perfectly cover for us Himself and remake us again from the inside out by the power of His true word as no one else can. You can learn a lot from goat-herders.
I think that planets migrating to a different orbit seems unlikely without some sort of collision which would also be deadly to life on the planet. is there another way a planet could change its orbit.
Life is so common that we only have one example - plus none we could live on w/ out bring food, oxygen & shelter - like a space station -
Great video . The more information I get about other planets the more I realize how the odds r against life n how unique is our existence.
Should I feel happy or lonely ?
Thanks so much, I appreciate it. As for how we feel, that's truly a choice we can make :)
Answer computed !
Please keep us sending more wonderful videos . Science gives meaning to life .
Only 4.2 Light Years as if that is a trivial distance.
Agree that it's very far if you want to actually travel there. But the closer it is to us, the easier it is to study. How fortunate we are to have an exoplanet around the closest star to our solar system!
@@LaunchPadAstronomy I look forward to Star Shot in fifty years time or James Webb in 100 years time.
James Webb in 100 years' time...that's about right, LOL!
I feel that you could be a little more open about how speculative you are being in trying to describe the conditions on a planet around a red dwarf and how life might survive there. If we were able to go to one right now, what we would find would not only be stranger than we imagine, but stranger than we can imagine.
I'm sorry if you felt I wasn't being speculative enough. I thought my video was entirely speculative, based on our best understanding of red dwarf stars.
@@LaunchPadAstronomy Thanks for the reply, and I'm sorry if I sounded rude or presumptive. My pet peeve is the same as Socrates. I feel it is most important to know what you don't know as the basis for seeking knowledge. I understand that you are applying the best current understanding of stars and planets, but I'm a stickler for observation. I'm sure you would love to see those close up pictures even more than me!
Maybe a Neptune type planet could actually have enough water and gasses to survive the flare period and become a terrestrial world with still an atmosphere after star calms down?
Excellent information based on scientific facts
Life is tenacious. If Proxima B is indeed habitable for complex life, such an ecosystem will be unlike anything. Adapted to the conditions of living in a higher gravity environment and under an active red dwarf. Organisms would see in the infrared spectrum, flora would have to be black to absorb the weak light. Noon on such a place would resemble a late afternoon to dusk.
This video overlooked 2 big issues unique to red dwarfs that could either hinder or help life.
1. Red dwarfs typically don't produce UV light. In regards to the video claiming that red dwarf flares would destroy a planets Ozone layer, this really wouldn't be an issue in reality. Ozone predominately protects against UV radiation. On earth it's vital since our star pumps it out at huge quantities. But a red drawf produces next to zero UV light. Thus Ozone really isn't all that valuable to life, so it's loss in negligible especially if the planet has a strong earth like magnetic field. However there is a major down side to this as well.
2. A lack of UV light could prevent anerobic life from evolving at all. Complex life evolved on earth thanks to 2 major variables. The first is when cyano bacteria killed themselves off by pumping out oxygen byproducts, thus giving rise to more efficient anerobic bacteria. The second was that this anerobic bacteria had to then contend with UV light and thus did so by evolving new systems of regeneration, motion and energy aquistion. Thus complex life was born out of a simple need to defend against UV radiation. Without this need to defend, anerobic bacteria would have remained as simple as their cyano predecessors as there would have been no true filter pressuring change. On top of this, there are so many chemical processes that require UV light to happen that there may be nothing but cyano bacteria and anerobic bacteria on red drawf planets, because the chemistry is impossible to achieve.
We should talk more about K-type stars as well.
Tidal locking would not only mean great temperature differences between the day and night sides of the planet, but it would also probably mean the planet has no magnetic field, or at least a very very weak one. This would be bad news for the planet's atmosphere and anything trying to live on the planet.
The planet could still have a magnetic field if it's core is convective enough, but it's harder to do if the planet's rotation is slow as it would be in a tidally locked scenario. If it could somehow maintain a *very* strong magnetic field then it would be good to go.
Life around a Red Dwarf? Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast...
Ace Rimmer..... what a guy......
Proxima Centauri is a very active flare star. Being that close the X-rays from a solar flare would be brutal. Secondly, the ONLY WAY Proxima B would have a viable atmosphere would be if it had a very strong magnetic field otherwise the solar wind would have stripped its atmosphere eons ago.
Thanks. One might speculate that Proxima b is home to giant, intelligent tardigrades. But I think the real question is: could a planet in the habitable zone of a red dwarf star be *_made_* livable for humans. Well, this of course depends on our level of technology at the time, plus our willingness to use it for that purpose. The fact that our nearest stellar neighbor has at least one planet represents an opportunity. As our abilities increase, we will doubtless get a better and better look at this system. In the meantime, I find the Starshot mission to be quite intriguing. I can only imagine how it would galvanize the public - and the governments of Earth - to actually see footage of a truly alien world, no matter what it looks like. I've seen and/or read many, many things about terraforming Mars (for instance), that speak of putting a kind of orbiting shield between that planet and the Sun. The space industry has yet to actually begin around Earth, however, and we have some baby steps yet to go. But it will take quite a long time - probably a few hundred years at least - before humans have ventured well out into our own solar system. As close as Proxima is (it *_is_* called 'Proxima' after all), it's still going to be a huge leap for humans to even contemplate going there. By that time, we will doubtless have improved our knowledge and our capabilities quite a bit (assuming we're still around, and that nothing has gone badly wrong with our society.) Who knows? By the time we're well into our next phase of exploration, we might have the technology to actually heat the core of a planet, and possibly even provide it with a magnetosphere & an ozone layer. I approve of dreaming, as long as we wake up and use those dreams to fire our imagination here in reality! After all, one of my favorite UA-cam channels is that of Isaac Arthur, and he's unabashedly positive about everything. Thanks again. tavi.
Hi. I'd like to suggest a theme. What would happen on Earth if the Moon disappeared? Life would still be possible here?
That's a really interesting idea. The short answer is yes, life would continue but how life would be affected by the Moon's absence is an interesting question.
He has a portal to Proxima Centauri in that little shed
You should have added the Trappist 1 solar system to this video...
I've been looking for a video like this; This is a great video. Could a late class K type orange dwarf have a better chance of having life?
Thanks! And the short answer is ‘yes’ for K-types.
Recent evidence is that red dwarf stars flare at very high latitudes, and thus may bypass planets orbiting near the stellar equator. I'll try to find a reference.
Are there any substitutes for an ozone layer?
Water can reflect away the UV radiation so undersea life can be protected without an ozone layer. But ozone is the key atmospheric defender against excessive UV reaching the surface.
@@LaunchPadAstronomy Thank you for responding. I guess I'm a bit curious about the flexibility of nature to defend against ionizing radiation. Since there are hundreds of thousands of chemical combinations, I would expect there to be more possibilities for atmospheric defense beyond only ozone. I guess O3 is probably the simplest. Anyway, thanks again.
I'm a little rusty on my chemistry,@@ACoroa so don't take my answer as the definitive answer on atmospheric UV defense :)
Could tidal locking be prevented if the planet had a large enough moon close enough to it for it's tidal force to offset the tidal force of the star? I don't see any defense against flares except for a very powerful magnetic field. Could the fact that the red dwarf doesn't produce much ultraviolet light offset the need for an Ozone layer?
Speculation interesting what about the fact highly unlikely that there's any life at Proxima Centauri highly unlikely there's any life around Barnard's star it's so unlikely the truth life here on Earth yet here it is it's pretty special it's very special in the universe yeah I think maybe just one time
I was under the impression that Proxima Centauri was far too variable for Proxima b to be home to complex life.
That’s my understanding as well. Of course it would be nice to investigate directly one day.
We have a strong tendency to believe the life we know is the easiest way for life to form - because it's the easiest for us to explain. Our life studies could easily favor missing the identification of other life forms simply because of our relationship with life that we know. We only seem to recognize life that we can relate to, not anything else. What are the chances that life exists all around us and we are the life forms which are toxic to them?...much like an invasive species searching for a new host? I don't fully expect that we could handle the truth - when we change the criteria frequently.
Further study is recommended!