ASTROPHYSICAL SOURCES OF RADIATION AND HABITABILITY IN THE UNIVERSE

ABREVAYA, X.C.

Simposio; 14th Moscow Solar System Symposium; 2023

Astrobiology is dedicated to the exploration of the universe to unveil the possibility of finding life outside the Earth. The development of different technical advancements allows us to do this search with more detail and characterize different regions of our galaxy and planets to determine their potential to host life (i.e.: galactic habitability and planetary habitability). In this context, astrophysical sources of radiation (e.g.: stellar radiation) are one of the fundamental factors to be studied, as radiation can have an impact on different scales in the universe being beneficial or detrimental to life through direct or indirect effects. In this talk, we will present a brief review of the current knowledge on the topic of the influence of astrophysical sources of radiation on life. In addition to it, we are going to focus on some particular cases of experiments under laboratory conditions to simulate extraterrestrial radiation environments which are used to investigate the biological impact of stellar radiation, particularly from very energetic events such as flares and superflares. These laboratory simulation experiments are useful as an approximation to obtain some answers about the effects of radiation at planetary scales.