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Related: About this forumWhite Dwarfs May Hold The Key To Finding Alien Life
2/26/2013 @ 12:24AM |1,610 views
White Dwarfs May Hold The Key To Finding Alien Life
At the end of one part of a stars life, if its not massive enough to become a neutron star or black hole which is the vast majority of stars it will shed mass and eventually become a very dense type of star known as a white dwarf. White dwarves are no longer capable of the nuclear fusion that sustains our Sun and most other stars. However, its residual thermal energy is enough to sustain heat for billions of years as it slowly dissipates. Even white dwarves that are close in age to that of the universe still retain their heat.
Its around these slowly dying stars that astronomers now think may show the first signs of life. At least, given the limits of our current technology. Thats the conclusion of researchers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
In the quest for extraterrestrial biological signatures, the first stars we study should be white dwarfs, said theorist Avi Loeb in a CfA press release.
So far, no planets have been found in the habitable zone of a white dwarf star an orbit where liquid water could exist on the surface of the planet. However, the researchers believe that a survey of 500 or so dwarf stars could discover such a planet.
More:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2013/02/26/white-dwarfs-may-hold-the-key-to-finding-alien-life/
Permanut
(5,610 posts)Incredible that we can learn so much from observing stuff happening out there, and how much we still don't know.
Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)Easier to detect life bearing planets but probably less likely to have them I suspect.
Plus any planet in the Goldilocks Zone around a white dwarf is going to have an orbital period you could measure with a stopwatch and will probably be tidally locked to boot, the weather on such a planet should be quite remarkable.
jeff47
(26,549 posts)For example, the Earth is likely to be destroyed by the red giant phase. At best all life will be incinerated and the atmosphere will be destroyed.
muriel_volestrangler
(101,321 posts)http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2013/02/-white-dwarf-stars-offer-best-potential-to-identify-habitable-planets.html
Which may explain why people haven't been rushing to examine white dwarfs so far - they may have just thought the chances of planets being in a stable orbit in the habitable zone is small.