Habitability Of Exoplanets Studied By NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory

The Chandra X-ray Telescope is investigating the habitability of exoplanets. NASA explains.   Credit: NASA/CXC/A. Hobart

Transcript

00:00Music

00:04Visit Chandra's beautiful universe.

00:08Exoplanet Study

00:12Using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA's XMM-Newton,

00:16astronomers are testing how habitable exoplanets are based on whether they receive

00:20lethal radiation from the stars they orbit.

00:24This type of research will help guide observations with the next generation of telescopes

00:28aiming to make the first images of planets like Earth.

00:32A team of researchers examined stars that are close enough to Earth that telescopes

00:36set to begin operating in the next decade or two could take images of planets

00:40in their so-called habitable zones, defined as orbits where the planets

00:44could have liquid water on their surfaces.

00:48Any images of planets will be single points of light and will not directly show

00:52surface features like clouds, continents, and oceans.

00:56However, their spectra, the amount of light at different wavelengths,

01:00will reveal information about the planet's surface composition and atmosphere.

01:04There are several other factors influencing what could make a planet

01:08suitable for life as we know it. One of those factors is the amount of

01:12harmful X-rays and ultraviolet light they receive, which can damage or even strip

01:16away the planet's atmosphere. A team of astronomers began

01:20with a list of stars that are close enough to Earth that future ground and space

01:24telescopes could make images of planets in their habitable zone.

01:28These future telescopes include the Habitable Worlds Observatory and

01:32ground-based Extremely Large Telescopes. Based on X-ray

01:36observations of some of these stars using data from Chandra and XMM Newton,

01:40the researchers examined which stars could have hospitable conditions

01:44on orbiting planets for life to form and prosper.

01:48The team studied how bright the stars are in X-rays, how energetic the X-rays

01:52are, and how much and how quickly they change in X-ray output.

01:56For example, due to flares.

02:00Brighter and more energetic X-rays can cause more damage to the atmospheres

02:04of orbiting planets. They identified stars where the habitable zone's

02:08X-ray radiation environment is similar to or even milder than the

02:12one in which Earth evolved. Such conditions may play a key role

02:16in sustaining a rich atmosphere like the one found on Earth.

02:20Observing time on the next generation of telescopes will be precious and extremely

02:24difficult to obtain. These X-ray data are helping to refine

02:28and prioritize the list of targets and may allow the first image of a

02:32planet like the Earth to be obtained more quickly.

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