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Space

Planets in close orbit around stars may be safe from dangerous flares

By Bas den Hond

5 July 2021

Âé¶¹´«Ã½. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

Flares from a star may not affect nearby planets to the extent we had thought

James Thew/Alamy

We thought flares from a star’s surface could harm life on any nearby planet – but an analysis suggests that even if planets are in close orbit around small stars, they may actually escape being singed.

at the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam in Germany has been studying flares using data captured by NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). She found that the data made it possible to determine the location of giant flares on four M-dwarfs, the most common…

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