Red dwarf flares may threaten alien life

[Welsh cake]

The search for alien life may have just gotten a lot harder.

The vast majority of stars in our known universe, red dwarfs, with their flares that behave much like variable stars have such unpredictable outbursts that may extinguish life on their orbiting planets before it ever has a chance to establish.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12184029

[downbeatplumb]

The search for alien life may have just gotten a lot harder.

The vast majority of stars in our known universe, red dwarfs, with their flares that behave much like variable stars have such unpredictable outbursts that may extinguish life on their orbiting planets before it ever has a chance to establish.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12184029

With emphasis on MAY we have no idea how resilient life can be or all the forms it can take.

[Minimalist]

First off, we have to lose the egocentric idea that all "life" would be like us.

For all we know on planets with atmospheres destroyed by solar flares evolution may have created creatures who eat ultraviolet rays and shit gold nuggets.

Would probably be best to find some extraterrestrial life and then worry about it.

[Anomalocaris]

Since modern conception of origin of life on earth proposes that life on our planet begun not in temperate environment exposed to air and subject to any radiation that penetrates the atmosphere, but instead in deep sea or underground hrdrothermal environments, the concept that violent flares would prevent formation of life seems somewhat obsolete.

In any case, we expect plenty of stars bigger than red dwarf that could also theoretical support incipient life on their planetary systems. Since the sun is one such star and it evidently did not exterminate our ancestors, we might extrapolate and say sufficient number of G type stars like the sun might also support biogenesis.

[Justtristo]

The search for alien life may have just gotten a lot harder.

The vast majority of stars in our known universe, red dwarfs, with their flares that behave much like variable stars have such unpredictable outbursts that may extinguish life on their orbiting planets before it ever has a chance to establish.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12184029

This is not exactly new news, at least to me. There are still a large number of singular Yellow or Orange Dwarf star systems, which would have a high chance of having earth type planets or moons out there.

My feeling is that life (including Multicellular forms) is relatively abundant in the universe. This would be in-spite of a universe which is fairly hostile to life.