“Unbelievable Transformation: Man’s Reckless Encounter with a Particle Accelerator Defies Science!”
Oxygen May Be Lacking
A team at NASA Goddard performed a recent study that ran on computer simulations of red dwarf planets and delivered some grim news for those hoping that TRAPPIST-1 would finally prove the existence of aliens. It showed that even if life was able to survive the radiation and the potentially lethal flares, it may be completely lacking oxygen.
The high-energy X-ray and ultraviolet emissions from a red dwarf star can literally strip oxygen from the atmosphere of nearby planets. Basically, if you were hoping to breathe on anywhere near TRAPPIST-1, you may be out of luck.
One Scientist Believes Life Could Have Adapted to Thrive on These Potentially Treacherous Planets
Life isn’t easy on any planet, and just like Earth, where not every environment is hospitable, life in TRAPPIST-1 could have adapted. Tom Barclay, a senior research scientist at the NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California believes so.
“You have regular events, but life is used to this,” said Barclay. “It just deals with it. We certainly see life on Earth capable of hibernating for very extended periods of time. We see that life goes into a state where it shuts down, sometimes for years or decades. So I think we shouldn’t, probably, rule it out, but we should put a lot of effort into studying whether this is a place where we think life could thrive.”
