Scientists have found that young stellar cousins of our Sun are calming down and dimming more quickly in their X-ray output than previously thought, according to a new study using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. A paper describing the results published Monday in The Astrophysical Journal.
Unlike in the new movie “Project Hail Mary,” this quieting of young stars is a benefit for the prospects for life on orbiting planets around these stars — not a threat.
Astronomers used Chandra and other telescopes to monitor how powerful radiation from young stars — often in the form of dangerous X-rays — can pummel planets surrounding them. They did not know, however, how long this high-energy barrage continued.
This latest study looked at eight clusters of stars between the ages of 45 million and 750 million years old. The researchers found that Sun-like stars in these clusters unleashed only about a quarter to a third of the X-rays they expected.
“While science fiction – like the microbes in Project Hail Mary – imagines alien life that dims stellar output by consuming its energy, our real observations reveal a natural ‘quieting’ of young Sun-like stars in X-rays,” said Konstantin Getman, the lead author of the new study from Penn State University. “This is not because an outside force is consuming their light, but because their internal generation o …