NASA’s Chandra Telescope has been in orbit since 1999 and is still feeding back incredible information about the universe around us. Recently, the world’s most powerful x-ray telescope has been helping astronomers on their quest to find other planets capable of supporting life.

Teams of scientists are currently in the process of identifying stars that have planets orbiting them, like the Earth orbits the Sun, so that they can then explore those planets’ atmospheres, climates and terrain.

There are many factors at play when it comes to finding other planets we could live on. These include the temperatures on the planet, and whether there is liquid water on its surface.

Another important factor is the presence of radiation. Planets that would otherwise be liveable may be incapable of sustaining life due to harmful levels of radiation present in their atmosphere.

This is exactly the problem that Chandra has been helping to solve.

Breanna Binder, a researcher from California State Polytechnic University, led this study. At the 244th meeting of the American Astronomical Society meeting in Madison, Wisconsin, she explained how her team’s research is key to finding host planets for future life in space:

“Without characterizing X-rays from its host star, we would be missing a key element on whether a planet is truly habitable or not. We need to look at what kind of X-ray doses these planets are receiving.”

Using data from 10 days of observations on the Chandra X-ray telescope and the European Space Agency’s XMM-Newton, Binder and her team built a 3D diagram mapping the nearest potential host stars.

The scientists observed how bright the stars were and monitored their radiation levels, including the impact of flares. Too much radiation would mean that the planets orbiting these stars were unable to support life due to the dangerous nature of their atmosphere.

Sarah Peacock from the University of Maryland explained how the mapped stars were chosen:

“We have identified stars where the habitable zone’s X-ray radiation environment is similar to or even milder than the one in which Earth evolved. Such conditions may play a key role in sustaining a rich atmosphere like the one found on Earth.”

With our Sun depicted at the centre of the diagram, the closest suitable stars are represented by the coloured dots around it. Each of these stars are interesting to scientists, because they could be orbited by exoplanets that could one day be targets for hosting life.

It is hoped that this diagram will help scientists to use powerful telescopes to explore the surface of the exoplanets orbiting these stars.

Edward Schweiterman, an astronomer from the University of California, explained the importance of the team’s research:

“We don’t know how many planets similar to Earth will be discovered in images with the next generation of telescopes, but we do know that observing time on them will be precious and extremely difficult to obtain. These X-ray data are helping to refine and prioritize the list of targets and may allow the first image of a planet similar to Earth to be obtained more quickly.”

Since several of the observed stars already have exoplanets known to scientists, this research is the next step in understanding if there are nearby planets on which we could live in the future.

Now that we know which of these have suitable radiation levels, it’s possible that one day these alien planets could be our home.

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