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Livescience
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Image Credit: Livescience
'Mathematically perfect' star system discovered 105 light-years from Earth may still be in its infancy. Could that change its prospects for life?
- Star HD 110067, 105 light-years from Earth, has six exoplanets that orbit synchronously.
- A recent study suggests that the star's age is around 2.5 billion years - far younger than the initially estimated of 8 billion years
- Astronomer Klaus-Peter Schröder and his colleagues used HD 110067's spin rate and activity levels to estimate its age.
- The team analyzed wavelengths of ionized calcium to judge star activity levels which intrinsic of the star’s age.
- With the new age estimation, astronomers will better understand how the surrounding exoplanets have evolved.
- Current exoplanet detection methods favour planets with smaller orbits which revolve closer to HD 110067, close enough for conditions to be too hot for life to arise.
- However, while temperature is a factor, younger stars spew lethal doses of X-rays and gamma rays. As such, HD 110067's newly refined age may limit the possibility of life on its unseen alien worlds.
- HD 110067’s youthful age may also lead astronomers to search for exoplanets with increasing distances from the star within its habitable zone.
- It is suggested that it may have taken as little as 1 billion years for some of the inner planets to begin rehearsing their careful dance through a phenomenon called tidal locking.
- The research was published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.
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