Incrementally-Encouraging Prospects, For Chances Of Life (Like Ours) -- Elsewhere In The Universe, From Latest Chandra X-Ray Data...

The chances that there might be more planets -- and systems -- like ours (watery and thickly covered in an oxygen bearing atmosphere -- and warm, but not too hot) just increased a bit. NASA's Chandra Observatory has sent back data, indicating that young stars, about the size of our Sun "cool, and calm down" -- on the X-ray spectrum -- more rapidly than earlier thought.

These young stars become more benign, after about 250 million years, not into the billions of years as previously surmised. Thus, this now-widened time-window, for when calm, rocky planets like ours, in the Goldilocks Zone, might develop and retain warm oxygen rich atmospheres, and host water oceans. . . and thus see life arise. . . means many more systems might presently host. . . life. The chances are pretty darn good there is some life out there, somewhere -- but this slightly increases those already favorable odds. Here's that, from NASA | Goddard:

. . .Scientists have found that young stellar cousins of our Sun are calming down and dimming more quickly in their X-ray output than previously thought, according to a new study using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. A paper describing the results published Monday in The Astrophysical Journal.

Unlike in the new movie “Project Hail Mary,” this quieting of young stars is a benefit for the prospects for life on orbiting planets around these stars — not a threat.

Astronomers used Chandra and other telescopes to monitor how powerful radiation from young stars — often in the form of dangerous X-rays — can pummel planets surrounding them. They did not know, however, how long this high-energy barrage continued.

This latest study looked at eight clusters of stars between the ages of 45 million and 750 million years old. The researchers found that Sun-like stars in these clusters unleashed only about a quarter to a third of the X-rays they expected. . . .

The researchers found that stars with about the same mass as the Sun quieted down relatively rapidly — after a few hundred million years — while ones with less mass kept up their high levels of X-ray emission for longer. Combined with a decrease in the energy of the X-rays and the disappearance of energetic particles, the Sun-sized stars are apparently better suited to host planets with robust atmospheres and possibly blossoming life than previously thought. . . .

Of course, it may still be that "intelligent" life only lasts on these worlds for a few millenia, before destroying themselves with nukes, or destroying their host planets' environments -- to render them. . . barren, again.

That in turn may mean that we may never find our window is open at the same time, and within a distance that we might detect their presence. But the odds are high, that somewhere -- at some time out there. . . things like us have existed, or do now exist -- or will soon. . . exist.

Will we prove smart enough to avoid destroying ourselves long enough to meet them? Presently, I have my doubts. But onward, resolutely, just the same.

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