NASA is set to launch two more sounding rockets from northern Australia during the first half of July, on the heels of a successful launch on June 26. These missions will aid scientists in understanding how starlight influences a planet’s atmosphere, possibly making or breaking its capacity to suppo
that could host life as we know it, astronomers have focused on planets that orbit in the habitable zone – defined as the distances from a star where a planet’s surface temperature could support water.While water is one part of making a planet hospitable, for a planet to support an Earth-like biosphere, it also needs an atmosphere. If the habitable zone is bathed in too much ultraviolet radiation, any water vapor in the upper atmosphere could escape, quickly drying out the planet.
The Spectrograph for Transition region Irradiance from Nearby Exoplanet host stars, or SISTINE, payload is being prepared for launch. Credit: NASA Wallops The researchers selected Alpha Centauri A and B because they can serve as useful references against which to calibrate observations from the Sun – the only other star for which we have complete ultraviolet measurements. Ultraviolet light is absorbed by dust and gas in space. This makes it nearly impossible to measure ultraviolet light from more distant stars at the level needed for these types of analyses. The Alpha Centauri system, however, is just 4.
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