XQC (X-ray quantum calorimeter) in Australia on June 26, NASA plans to launch two more suborbital rockets in the first half of July. During the planned mission, they will investigate the effect of starlight on the atmospheres of planets, and through it they can learn if the planets are suitable for life as we know it. Both rockets, Alpha Centauri A and B, will scan sun-like stars in the extreme ultraviolet and far infrared range. Ultraviolet radiation with a wavelength shorter than the wavelength of visible light is critical to the search for life: while too little ultraviolet rays can help form the molecules necessary for life, too much ultraviolet erodes the atmosphere, which in turn erodes the atmosphere. It creates conditions on the planet that are incompatible with known life.
The sun’s ultraviolet radiation also played a role in the loss of Mars’ atmosphere and in creating today’s hot and uninhabitable environment on Venus. Astronomer Brian Fleming of Deus (Two-channel extreme UV sequencing experiment), according to the mission leader, understanding ultraviolet radiation is essential to characterizing habitable planets.
Of the more than 5,000 known exoplanets, only Earth is known to be suitable for life. While searching for exoplanets suitable for life as we know it, especially the so-called they focus on the planets orbiting in the habitable zone, which are most often determined based on the temperature suitable for the presence of liquid water; However, this is a somewhat primitive approach. Although water is also an element of habitable planets, in order to have a biosphere similar to Earth, an atmosphere is also needed. If the ultraviolet radiation in the habitable zone is too strong, the water in the upper atmosphere can escape, which can quickly dry out the planet. The atmosphere is also eroded by intense radiation and explosions from the central star, and molecules such as DNA can disintegrate at the UV-exposed surface.
However, the ultraviolet radiation emitted by different stars is still unknown, and without accurate knowledge it is not possible to accurately estimate the planets that may have life. Astronomer Kevin France from SISTINE (Sub-orbital imaging spectrometer of transition region radiation from host stars to nearby exoplanetsMission Commander, we must first learn about the stars to understand the planets orbiting them.
DEUCE and SISTINE will make ultraviolet measurements, thus narrowing down our criteria for searching for habitable planets. The two missions will begin one week later, and together they will obtain a complete ultraviolet image of the stars Alpha Centauri A and B. Alpha Centauri A and B were chosen as targets because they provide a useful calibration reference for the Sun; For the only star for which full UV measurements are available.
Ultraviolet radiation in space is absorbed by dust and gas, so it is almost impossible to study the ultraviolet radiation of distant stars in the detail required for this type of analysis. The Alpha Centauri system, on the other hand, is only 4.3 light-years away, which is close enough for most of the emitted radiation to reach us. However, most UV radiation is (thankfully) filtered out by Earth’s atmosphere, so space-based instruments must be used to measure it.
The entire UV range cannot be measured with a single instrument, so DEUCE will look at the shorter ultraviolet wavelengths, the longer SISTINE, and the far ultraviolet wavelengths. The measurements will overlap slightly, so the collected data can be calibrated and processed as a single data packet. With the help of the information obtained, models will be created, which will be used to estimate other star systems that may have conditions suitable for life.
According to Kevin France, with the help of measurements from the Alpha Centauri system, we will be able to check whether there is the same radiation environment around other stars similar to the Sun, or whether there are many different environments. Since these stars are not visible from the northern hemisphere, they were observed from Australia. According to plan, SISTINE was launched on July 4, while DEUCE was launched on July 12. The two-stage missions of NASA’s Black Brant IX suborbital rockets traveled from Arnhem Space Center in the Northern Territory of Australia.
source: NASA
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