New Twist In Alien Search

via Space.com

A new twist in where we might go looking for those Vulcans and Klingons. Past searches of other solar systems have focused on Sun like G sequence stars, but scientists now think that M sequence stars might also be good candidates for harboring other life and alien civilizations. Rationale? M class stars can live far longer than G class stars - over ten times longer, in fact, and M class stars are the most common stellar type in the universe.

“M stars are the most accessible, yet challenging, targets for habitable zone terrestrial planet searches,” says journal Editor-in-Chief, Sherry L. Cady, Ph.D., Associate Professor in the Department of Geology at Portland State University. “The potential for M Star habitable zone planets to evolve biospheres and retain them are but two of the many reasons to include M stars in the search for evidence of life beyond the confines of Earth.”

Current discoveries of exoplanets around G type stars haven't been terribly promising, many have so called "hot Jupiters" near the star that would either limit or eliminate the formation of terrestrial type planets from forming around the star. With the long life expectancy of M type stars (100 billion years) the possibility of life developing at some point over that period would have to be pretty high for any planet in such a star's habitable zone.

Cool.