Scientists talked about the threat of exoplanet atmosphere loss in red dwarfs

An international team of scientists has modeled the behavior of the atmosphere of a Mars—like exoplanet orbiting Barnard's star, a red dwarf six light-years from Earth. This was reported on the news portal on March 30. Phys.org .

"Exo-Mars is losing atmosphere very quickly, and it is difficult to imagine that the four planets near Barnard's star will lose it much more slowly," the study notes.

For the simulation, scientists took the parameters of real Mars — its mass, radius, and thin carbon dioxide atmosphere — and placed the model planet in an orbit 0.087 AU from Barnard's star. This is 17 times closer than Mars is to the Sun, but it is this distance that reproduces a comparable level of stellar radiation. As a result, even with relatively low activity of the star, the current atmosphere of Mars would evaporate in about 350 thousand years, and a shell similar to Earth's would last about 50 million years.

Special attention was paid to four small rocky worlds that have already been discovered near Barnard's star in orbits near the inner edge of the habitable zone. The authors believe that their atmospheres will disappear even faster than that of the simulated planet. Primary atmospheres consisting of hydrogen and helium are all the more vulnerable: lighter gases escape easier, and in the early stages of the star's evolution, its harsh radiation was about a hundred times more intense than the current one.

Solar color: "laser headlights" will help spacecraft "see" the moon

The new phosphor allows you to get light close to natural and can withstand extreme temperatures.

On March 30, an international group of astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) recorded a unique energy burst of GRB 250702B, the duration of which was hundreds of times longer than the known explosions.

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