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Many years ago, there was a viral YouTube video called \u201cHistory of the entire world, i guess,\u201d which has been an endless source of internet memes since its release. One of the most prominent is also scientifically accurate\u2014when describing why animals couldn\u2019t start living on land, the video\u2019s creator, Bill Wurtz, intones, \u201cThe Sun is a deadly laser.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Early in planetary development, the X-ray and ultraviolet radiation level of a planet\u2019s host stars could sterilize the entire planet\u2019s surface, even if it is in the so-called \u201chabitable zone.\u201d To narrow down the search for potentially habitable planets, the team at the Chandra X-ray Observatory and XMM-Newton telescopes took a look at stars that had planets in their habitable zone and analyzed them for whether the star\u2019s radiation itself might preclude life as we know it from developing there.<\/p>\n Over ten observational days on Chandra and 26 on XMM-Newton, scientists observed 57 stars close enough to Earth to have their exoplanets explored by the next generation of exoplanet-hunting telescopes, such as the Habitable Worlds Observatory. While not all of them had known exoplanets, at least some did.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n