What do you think about the super flare of Proxima Centauri?

Hi guys, I hope you are doing well

So.. the other day I read that Proxima Centauri released a huge flare last year, decreasing the chances of existing life in Proxima b

What do you think about it? I also read that the flare lasted 2 minutes.. what if the flare happened in the part of the star that was not facing Proxima b? Proxima Centauri rotates every 82 days.. I think that maybe the flare might have been released on the oposite side towards empty space (or other exoplanets)

I recently made a new video on the top 5 potentially habitable exoplanets closest to Earth in 2018 (here it is: www.youtube.com... ) in which I included Proxima b because it is still considered the one with the highest earth similarity index. Do you think that Proxima b should not be considered a potentially habitable exoplanet anymore? Should the target of the Starshot project be changed?

a reply to: alpha015

I think we are next

Just kidding, but there's a very good chance we'll get hit too. Not sure when. But it will happen.

@ 1:25 he speaks of a magnetic field...... I take that to mean like our Van Allen belt... Curious how the rotation, mas and likeness was determined. I'll take his word for it. Perhaps a thicker atmosphere as was told in the early life of Earth.

Interesting. S&F

"Do you think that Proxima b should not be considered a potentially habitable exoplanet anymore? Should the target of the Starshot project be changed?"

Very good question. It should be considered quite seriously.

Pardon my dumbness on the subject, but I love this stuff, just not smart enough to understand it all.
If it was a flare, could the planet not be shielded like earth? I know we get hit, but our atmosphere and our magnetosphere protect us right?
If they were further advanced than us they could be even more protected. Why would a flare declare a planet dead?

originally posted by: vinifalou
a reply to: alpha015

I think we are next

Just kidding, but there's a very good chance we'll get hit too. Not sure when. But it will happen.

We've already had a couple. There was the Carrington event in 1859.
en.wikipedia.org...

Then there was another event in 1989

en.wikipedia.org...
www.solarstorms.org...
"Meanwhile, the Space Shuttle Discovery was having its own mysterious problems. A sensor on one of the tanks supplying hydrogen to a fuel cell was showing unusually high pressure readings on March 13 “The hydrogen is exhibiting a pressure signature that we haven’t ever seen before” said the Flight Director Granville Pennington at the Johnson Space Center. Engineers tried, apparently unsuccessfully, to understand the odd readings in order to advise whether to end the flight a day early on Friday. No public connection was ever made between this instrument reading ‘glitch’ and the solar storm that crippled Quebec, but it is fair to say that the conjunction of these two events was not completely by chance."

I experienced the 1989 event myself when in Scotland. Was listening to my local radio station (Northsound) in the afternoon when suddenly there was interference from another station. We started receiving a Norwegian FM station (NRG) on the same frequency. Later that night, we have aurora in the form of a reddish/green T shape opposite of where the Sun was on the celestial sphere and flashes of faint green shooting across the sky.

Hey!

Great topic. Okay, I think that no, I don't think we should switch targets because even if all life had been extinguished there would still be traces of it to detect. Plus, the Earth has gotten baked(maybe, I'm making the assumption that CMEs are what causes magnetic field reversals) many MANY times and yet life persists. And it's the closest shot. I say we keep shooting for Proxima Centauri.

originally posted by: Plotus
@ 1:25 he speaks of a magnetic field...... I take that to mean like our Van Allen belt... Curious how the rotation, mas and likeness was determined. I'll take his word for it. Perhaps a thicker atmosphere as was told in the early life of Earth.

Interesting. S&F

You're not far off. Think of the Van Allen belts as a sort of sifting process between heavy protons (+) and light electrons (-) as they interact with gravity and the Earth's magnetic field. Assume the solar wind is roughly composed of both. The Earth's gravity well gives the protons more kinetic energy, so they tend to concentrate at a different altitude than the electrons. Remember that the EM field strength has a different curve as compared to gravity, with respect to distance.

a reply to: stormcell

Can the space station stop circling the Earth and "hide" on the side that will not be affected by a massive incoming solar flare...until the danger has passed?

originally posted by: carewemust
a reply to: stormcell

Can the space station stop circling the Earth and "hide" on the side that will not be affected by a massive incoming solar flare...until the danger has passed?

Not without falling into the earth.

originally posted by: ausername

originally posted by: carewemust
a reply to: stormcell

Can the space station stop circling the Earth and "hide" on the side that will not be affected by a massive incoming solar flare...until the danger has passed?

Not without falling into the earth.

OK..thanks. I guess it's too much to expect the Space Station to be able to move higher..up to where satellites can sit in one spot over the globe?

a reply to: carewemust

You'd have to move it out to about 22,000 miles without changing speed much, and it would orbit at about the same speed as earth rotation I think. It's at about 250 miles now.

a reply to: alpha015

The flare could be a sign of a experiment gone wrong or a war between two alien races.

I think we should send probes there sure..

But I think we should send probes everywhere else also..

I I think we should have done it yesterday

a reply to: alpha015

Yeah screw Poxima whatever. We already have been to the nearest places (according to ATS posters) and all they found was primordial goo.

The future is still open... but closing fast.

a reply to: alpha015

I think when the educated experts tell you that it "decreased the chances of existing life in Proxima b" and you're just a random person on the internet, you have to go with the experts.

a reply to: alpha015

I think when the educated experts tell you that it "decreased the chances of existing life in Proxima b" and you're just a random person on the internet, you have to go with the experts.

If it had such a flare once, it would have had similar ones many times.

Phil Plait, in his blog, summs it up as pretty much ruling out any chances of life existing in that star system: www.syfy.com...

Flares from Proxima Centauri have almost certainly sterilized the Earth-sized planet orbiting the star. Not only that, but last year scientists announced observations of the star could be explained by an extensive rings of dust around the star, and maybe even a Saturn-like planet. Welp, turns out a flare sterilized those results, too.

a reply to: wildespace

You know what comes to mind? I remember hearing that there are certain Lizards here on earth that are immune to radiation, that is nuclear radiation, and some odd insects as I recall. Why not a sort of safety valve there as well? Just a thought..

originally posted by: vinifalou
a reply to: alpha015

I think we are next

Just kidding, but there's a very good chance we'll get hit too. Not sure when. But it will happen.

The strength of a star's flare decreases with its distance.

Proxima Centauri is at 4.2 light years from us.

That's a long way for a flare.

Not to mention, the Sun also has a shield that encompasses the solar system.

originally posted by: TexasTruth
Pardon my dumbness on the subject, but I love this stuff, just not smart enough to understand it all.
If it was a flare, could the planet not be shielded like earth? I know we get hit, but our atmosphere and our magnetosphere protect us right?
If they were further advanced than us they could be even more protected. Why would a flare declare a planet dead?

You'd need a hell of a magnetosphere, much much more stronger than the Earth ever had. Heaving a magnetosphere at all is actually hard for a planet to achieve - it requires very specific conditions.

And if the star spouts such flares in a regular basis (astronomically speaking, even once a century is "regular basis"), then you'd have a hard time getting life to form at all in the first place, let alone a technologically advanced one. Star flares literally disintegrate molecules by irradiating them.

Water could provide for a haven for life, but technological advancement requires fire. Fire is hard to produce underwater.