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Center for Astrophysics A Hubble image of the M-dwarf star Proxima Centauri, our closest stellar neighbor about four light-years away. Proxima hosts two planets, and is known to actively flare. Astronomers studying the suitability for life evolving on exoplanets around M-dwarf stars have completed a multi-wavelength analysis of an extreme flare on Proxima Cen. Hubble/ ESA/NAS The prospects for life around low-mass, cool M-type stars have been extensively discussed because these stars are the most common ones in the galaxy, and they frequently host Earth-sized planets in their habitable zones (orbits where the surface temperatures can support liquid water). Unfortunately for the prospects of life, however, these stars also exhibit higher levels of stellar activity and flaring than do more massive, solar-type stars, and flares can gradually deplete a planet’s atmosphere of molecules needed for life. Moreover, these hostile conditions persist in some fashion throughout ....
May 4, 2021 In May 2019, astronomers measured the largest flare ever from Proxima Centauri, the closest star to our sun. What do such flares mean for possible alien life, on a planet in the Proxima Centauri system, only 4 light-years away? Proxima Centauri is the closest star to the solar system and is home to a potentially habitable planet. Image via Hubble/ European Space Agency/ WikimediaCommons. Our sun isn’t the only star to produce stellar flares. On April 21, 2021, a team of astronomers published new research in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, describing the brightest flare ever measured from Proxima Centauri in ultraviolet light, which occurred on May 1, 2019. To learn about this extraordinary event – and what it might mean for any life on the planets orbiting Earth’s closest neighboring star – The Conversation spoke with Parke Loyd, an astrophysicist at Arizona State University and co-author of the paper. Excerpts from the conversation are belo ....