Frequent flaring on TRAPPIST-1—unsuited for habitability?
https://phys.org/news/2017-04-frequent-flaring-trappist-1unsuited-habitability.html
Data from the K2 mission reveals strong stellar magnetism in the TRAPPIST-1 system that hosts three
potentially habitable planets, suggesting that those planets could be a less friendly place for life.
TRAPPIST-1 is a nearby cool red dwarf star called an M-dwarf, a mere 39 parsecs away from the sun. The star recently made headlines with the discovery
of its complex system of seven planets, three of which orbit in the habitable zone of the host star. The lowest age estimate of the system, about 500
million years, makes the formation of basic life possible – the oldest life form known on Earth dates back to ~4 billion years, when the sun itself was
only about 500 million years old.
Researchers from the Konkoly Observatory of the MTA CSFK (Budapest, Hungary), led by astronomer Krisztián Vida, studied the extensive raw photometric
data of TRAPPIST-1, obtained during the K2 mission of the Kepler space telescope. The light curve shows several energetic flares during the 80-day-long
observations. These events are the result of stellar magnetism, when magnetic flux ropes reconnect in the stellar atmosphere, resulting in sudden release
of energy that can be observed as brightening of the star. These can be mainly observed in high-energy regimes—X-ray or UV—but the strongest ones can
also be detected in white light.
