Search for Life Could Target Binary Star Systems
Because of gravitational interactions early on in planetary formation, astronomers show how binary star systems may be the best places to search for life.
While understanding stellar system formation and evolution is obviously great just for the sake of science, we all know that what really gets people interested is the possibility of finding life beyond Earth and particularly on an exoplanet. Now, in new research published in Nature, astronomers show how binary star systems may be the best place to search.
Project lead Jes Kristian Jørgensen explains: The result is exciting since the search for extraterrestrial life will be equipped with several new, extremely powerful instruments within the coming years. This enhances the significance of understanding how planets are formed around different types of stars. Such results may pinpoint places which would be especially interesting to probe for the existence of life.
The research was done with a combination of observations of a young binary system and simulations of its possible past and future. Because of the gravitational tugs of the two stars, the gas and dust in the young system get whipped up every few hundred years, and as a result, the stars brighten as the…
