Would Earth-like exoplanet really fit the bill if its star was dark? #astronomy #exoplanet #solarsystem

[image error]More than 4,000 known exoplanets, but I haven’t really thought about the stars enough.

Almost all of the Earth-sized planets known to have potentially Earth-like surface temperatures are in orbit around red dwarf stars, which do not emit visible light but infrared radiation instead. Many red dwarfs are also notorious for emitting high-energy flares and for frying their planets. scitechdaily.com

Well, that would be a depressing place to colonize (not that the possiblity exists yet.) It is interesting to think that the night sky is dark, not because there is blackness between stars, but because the human eye perceives such a tiny fraction of the electromagnetic spectrum. However, a planet around Kepler-160 could be the right combination of planet and sun to appeal to us humans, and only 3000 light-years away.

Of course, it’s possible the “planet” is only a statistical fluke or a measurement error. As usual, more data is needed. But if we can find the planet and maybe someday analysze its atmosphere, we may be able to look up wistfully at the constellation of Lyra and wonder if anything is looking back.