The power to host biography might not be an scoop of the young - ish virtuoso . Even after stars grow sometime and swell up they are able-bodied to create the right weather for aliveness , although with some caveat .
This is the finding of a new study by astronomer Ramses Ramirez and Lisa Kaltenegger from Cornell ’s Carl Sagan Institute , and published in theAstrophysical Journal . Red Giant stars can provide a unchanging surroundings for at least 200 million years and up to 9 billion years depend on their great deal .
Most wiz , like our Sun , are fusing atomic number 1 in their meat and they are part of the so - holler " main sequence " . When the hydrogen runs out , after millions or billions of years , they begin to flux He but it comes at a cost : the genius get heavy , bright and hot .
“ When a star ages and brightens , the habitable zone actuate outwards and you ’re basically giving a 2nd wind to a planetary organisation , ” said Ramirez , the lead author of the study , in astatement .
The " habitable zone " is the region of a star topology organisation where piss could be found as both self-colored or liquid and flatulence on the control surface of planets , based alone on the luminosity of the star . The region is not too spicy and not too dusty , hence the alternative nickname , the " goldilocks zone " .
The Solar System ’s habitable zone now ( top ) and how it will move in the future as the Sun expands ( bottom ) . Wendy Kenigsburg
In our Solar System , it stretch from halfway between Venus and Earth to beyond Mars , but it will touch Jupiter and Saturn when the Sun turns into a red giant in 5 billion years . Moons like Europa and Enceladus might partly melt , produce the correct conditions for life to prosper .
“ Long after our own plain yellow Sun inflate to become a red giant star and turns Earth into a sizzling hot waste , there are still regions in our Solar System – and other solar systems as well – where life might boom , ” Kaltenegger said .
“ For stars that are like our sunshine , but older , such thawed planets could stay tender up to half a billion year . That ’s no small amount of clip , ” said Ramirez .
This research suggests a possible shift in target in our William Holman Hunt for potentially habitable worlds . honest-to-god stars could be just as upright hosts as the " middle age " star that are the most observed objects in our search for exoplanets .
There is also another grounds to hunt for planets around secretive - by red-faced giants : Our telescopes are good enough to straight figure of speech objects in their habitable zone . The first habitable exoplanet could be just one notice aside .
