NASA finds superflares flares from Young Red Dwarf Stars imperiling planets

By using Hubble Space Telescope, the scientists of NASA have found that violent flares from the Young Red Dwarf Stars may make planets orbiting it uninhabitable by affecting their atmospheres. Hubble is observing such stars through a large programme called HAZMAT — Habitable Zones and M dwarf Activity across Time. The purpose of the HAZMAT program is to help understand the habitability of planets around low-mass stars. The word “HAZMAT” describes substances that pose a risk to the environment, or even to life itself. “M dwarf” is the astronomical term for a red dwarf star. The programme is an ultraviolet survey of red dwarfs at three different ages – young, intermediate, and old. According to NASA, Stellar flares from red dwarf star, are particularly bright in ultraviolet wavelengths, compared with Sun-like stars. The flares are believed to be powered by intense magnetic fields that get tangled by the roiling motions of the stellar atmosphere. When the tangling gets too intense, the field breaks & reconnects, and unleashes tremendous amounts of energy. Red dwarf is the smallest, most abundant and longest-lived type of star in our galaxy.