There are hundreds of millions of worlds in the Milky Way where life could exist – study

In our galaxy, the Milky Way, there are hundreds of millions of planets that may be quite suitable for the conditions for the existence of life to form on them. We are talking about stellar systems, in the center of which shine the so-called red dwarfs, which are much smaller than our Sun.

This is stated in a study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The authors of the study were professor of astronomy Sarah Ballard and doctoral student Sheila Saghir from the University of Florida.

As scientists explain, the Sun observed by earthlings is a G-type luminary – such stars are informally called yellow dwarfs. Despite the fact that the Sun is so familiar to us, within the Milky Way galaxy, such stars are quite rare, since M-type stars are the most common. These are red dwarfs, which are much smaller and cooler and have half the mass of our Sun.

Billions of planets in our galaxy revolve around such stars.

Ballard and Saghir used data from NASA’s Kepler Telescope and ESA’s Gaia Telescope to study 163 exoplanets orbiting red dwarfs.

They were able to establish that in order to receive a sufficient portion of heat, the planets in such systems have to be very close to their stars. In certain cases, this results in the planets simply being fried, but there are better scenarios.

According to scientists, two-thirds of the exoplanets will be placed too close to the star to be in a safe zone, but another third will fall into a zone that is quite suitable for storing water on the planet and forming life.

Yes, such a forecast can be called quite pessimistic, but in terms of absolute numbers, this means that on hundreds of millions of planets orbiting red dwarfs in our home galaxy, there may be life, or at least the conditions for further emergence.

“I think this result is very important for the next decade of exoplanet research because the view is shifting towards this population of stars,” Sagar explained.

In her opinion, red dwarfs should become objects for the search for small planets in their orbit. After all, this will be the easiest and most accurate way to detect a planet on which, with a high probability, there may be water in a liquid state, and “therefore, the planet may be habitable.”

Saguir and Ballard also found that stars with multiple planets are likely to have circular orbits, allowing the planets to hold onto liquid water. Stars with a single planet are most likely to see extreme tides, leading to overheating of the planet and evaporation of water.

Earlier, GLOBAL HAPPENINGS also talked about the fact that scientists have discovered a process in the atmosphere of an exoplanet that has never been seen outside the solar system.