Why Proxima Centauri is Far More Dangerous Than You Think скачать в хорошем качестве

Why Proxima Centauri is Far More Dangerous Than You Think

Proxima Centauri is the closest star to our Sun, just 4.2 light-years away. It hosts at least two confirmed planets, including Proxima b, an Earth-mass world sitting inside the habitable zone. For years, this system looked like our best shot at finding life next door.The reality is far more hostile than anyone hoped.Proxima Centauri is a flare star. It fires off superflares roughly five times per year, each one delivering over 100 times the lethal dose of UV radiation to its closest planets. In 2019, nine telescopes caught the largest flare ever recorded from the star, a seven-second eruption that made Proxima 14,000 times brighter in ultraviolet light. That flare was 100 times more powerful than anything our Sun has ever produced.The stellar wind pressure at Proxima b's orbit is roughly 10,000 times greater than what Earth experiences from the Sun. The planet is almost certainly tidally locked, likely has no magnetic field, and may have lost its atmosphere billions of years ago.In this video, we explore why the closest star to Earth may be one of the most dangerous places in our stellar neighborhood, what this means for Proxima b and the newly discovered Proxima d, and why the habitability of red dwarf systems across the entire galaxy is now in serious question.