Without the Sun, there would be no life on Planet Earth. What's more, the Sun is the 'kind' and perfect star for the planet, in a new study.
As quoted by us from Universe Today, many stars are downright dangerous. For example, emitting a flare so powerful that it could destroy life on planets within its reach, if for example there was life there.
Research on the stars, among others, is carried out through NASA's TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) spacecraft. One of its missions is to study about 1,000 red dwarf stars that are close together.
These red dwarfs are the most numerous in the Milky Way galaxy, accounting for about 75% of the percentage. This star has a long life, but can emit a dangerous flare.
Our sun also emits a similar thing called a solar flare and the result is a solar storm. The incident can impact devices such as satellites or electronic objects.
Fortunately, however, the solar flare was nothing compared to that emitted by the red dwarf stars in the study, despite the Sun's larger size. The sun itself is in the category of yellow dwarf stars.
"This sun 'behaves' very well. Many of these red dwarfs can emit flares 1,000 times more massive than our sun and you can only imagine what would happen if that were to happen to our planet," said lead researcher, Ward Howard of the University. of Colorado.
Solar storms do cause damage, but not on an extraordinary scale. In the last century, only two extreme solar storms have been recorded, in 1859 and 1921.
The solar storm that occurred in 1859, also known as the 'Carrington Event', caused the telegram cable to catch fire, so that the aurora that normally only exists at the poles was seen in Colombia.