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The 'restless' aspects of red dwarfs older

Meticulous research that has analyzed more than 200 000 stars in our galaxy has revealed details of the rather "stormy" in the red dwarfs. These stars, smaller than our Sun, can trigger atypical and dazzling star flares, which can release energy equivalent to 100 million atomic bombs.

Red dwarfs are the most widespread in the Universe, and have occasionally even entire planetary systems. Nevertheless, their habits might be hostile - if not fatal - in the presence of worlds populated by living beings. Astronomers, using the most powerful telescopes (such as Hubble) and proceeding by inference, have concluded that this spectral type of stars deliver flares - ie eruptions - stellar. These unusual and peculiar phenomena occur when two energetic magnetic field lines (ie those that form the magnetic spectrum) come together, acting like a rubber band and emitting colossal amount of energy. These eruptions, known as "flares" swamp any exoplanet contiguous with gusts of ultraviolet and X-rays, followed immediately by fast-flowing jets of charged particles known as "stellar wind."

studying the light from 215 000 red dwarfs, Hubble was able to discern 100 stellar eruptions. This is equivalent to 0.465 percent, which apparently seems a pittance, but for astronomers is to say a very, very big. All this plethora of star was photographed in only seven days, and the monitoring of red dwarfs are the most understood never executed.

«Sapevamo che giovani stelle iperattive producono queste eruzioni, ma questo studio mostra che anche in stelle abbastanza vecchie questi brillamenti sono un fatto di vita» asserisce Rachel Osten, astronomo presso il Space Telescope Science Institute ubicato a Baltimore nonché il direttore dello studio. «La vita su pianeti troppo vicini a queste irrequiete stelle - continua - potrebbe essere molto difficile. Le loro atmosfere surriscaldate potrebbero gonfiarsi ed essere spazzate via».

Osten e la sua équipe hanno eseguito uno studio su stelle anziane, ma altre ricerche eseguite su nane rosse più giovani indicano che le stelle «non stagionate» sono 15 volte più irrequiete.