Sunspots help understand life around other stars
Context: A new study published in The Astrophysical Journal has shown how sunspots - which are relatively cooler and darker patches on the Sun - can help us understand more about conditions for life on exoplanets, planets that are outside the solar system.
More about the study
- High-resolution data of the Sun from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory and JAXA/NASA’s Hinode mission was used for the study.
- Different layers of the Sun studied using 14 different wavelengths including visible, ultraviolet (UV), and X-rays.
Sunspots
- Sunspots are precursors to solar flares.
- Monitoring them can help decode how and why flares occur.
- On young stars, superflares happen almost daily, whereas, on more mature ones like our Sun, they may occur once in 1,000 years.
- A few flares may help in building RNA and DNA on planets whereas too many strong flares can damage the atmosphere, thus turning the planet uninhabitable.
- Studying stellar activity could also help explain the beginning of life on Earth four billion years ago.
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