An international team of scientists works to prove this theory. The enormous energy emissions of stars can create the conditions for the development of organisms
Solar storms, phenomena that we are used to considering negative due to their effects on everything electrical on Earth, could instead favor the birth of life on the planets. We humans could also be the consequence of one of these events.
The stellar explosions that create life
Here’s how: For the first time, a coronal mass ejection from the Sun has been observed in its entirety on another star, revealing that when these violent explosions occur on young stars, they contain enough energy to trigger the chemistry of life on any orbiting planet. And young stars can be much more “turbulent” than older ones, at least according to the physics we know. Moreover, during the years of formation of our Sun, it seems to have emitted flares of radiation and coronal mass ejections that were much more powerful and frequent than what happens today.
What happens during a coronal mass ejection
A “coronal mass” ejection and subsequent flare occurs when the magnetic field lines of the Sun or another star break apart, releasing a huge amount of energy before the lines reconnect. This energy manifests itself as an increase in brightness on the surface of the Sun or star and can lift a huge cloud of plasma directly from the corona, the ultra-hot outer layer of its atmosphere.
How CMEs are observed on distant stars
Humanity has learned to observe this phenomenon (called Cme) when it occurs on our Sun, but on distant stars they are more difficult to detect. Nonetheless, ground-based telescopes observing wavelengths typical of hydrogen-alpha (hydrogen atoms bonded to an alpha carbon atom) have detected cold, low-energy plasma emitted by young stars during CMEs. And the next step for scientists was to look for Cme release from young stars.
The case of EK Draconis
The international team of astronomers led by Professor Kosuke Namekata of Kyoto University is doing this by analyzing a young star similar to the Sun: it is called EK Draconis and is located 112 light years from Earth in the constellation of Draco. It is believed to be between 50 and 125 million years old, considered very young for a star destined to exist for billions of years. It has a mass of 0.95 compared to the Sun and shows a surface temperature very close to that of our star. But it is obvious that the distance between us and EK Draconis makes us observe an event 112 years after it happened.
The words of Professor Namekata
Interviewed by Nature magazine, Namekata said: “What inspired us most was the mystery of how the violent activity of the young Sun affected the nascent Earth; by combining data from observatories located in Japan, Korea and the United States we were able to reconstruct what may have happened billions of years ago in our solar system.”
Observation with Hubble, Tess and ground-based telescopes
The Japanese scientist’s team performed simultaneous observations of EK Draconis with the Hubble Space Telescope, with NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and with three ground-based telescopes positioned in Japan and Korea. Hubble’s observations were made in ultraviolet light, which allowed it to detect the high-energy components of a CME, while ground-based telescopes tracked the cooler plasma through its hydrogen-alpha emission. Finally, Tess observed the increase in brightness caused by the associated flare.
The discoveries and their importance
Hubble’s ultraviolet vision detected a cloud of hot plasma with a temperature of 100,000 degrees Kelvin (180,000 degrees Fahrenheit). The magnitude of the Doppler shift in the star’s ultraviolet spectral lines indicated that the hot plasma was being ejected at speeds between 300 and 550 kilometers per second (670,000 to 10,000 km/h). 1.2 million miles per hour). Ten minutes later, a plume of cooler gas appeared (about 100.00 degrees C), moving more slowly at 70 kilometers per second.
The hot component of the CME carried much more energy than the colder plasma, and this regularly released energy would be significant enough to trigger chemical reactions in a planet’s atmosphere, producing greenhouse gases capable of keeping the climate warm, as well as breaking down atmospheric molecules so they can reform into complex organic molecules. These, consequently, could potentially serve as the building blocks of life.
The role of stars in the origin of life
The results of this research were published on October 27 in the journal Nature Astronomy, where the final consideration of the discovery is that the observations are a rare revelation about the role that stars can play in the origin of life. Role that our Sun may have had 4.5 billion years ago and that other stars could play today.
