General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Astronomers discover three habitable planets just 40 light years away [View all]lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)Last edited Mon May 2, 2016, 03:26 PM - Edit history (1)
If they're smart, they probably don't want such a violent species to know of their existence. Or we don't happen to have turned a radio telescope their way.
But... a brown dwarf? How long can it stay hot enough? A red dwarf has a nuclear furnace, and can burn many times longer than our own hotter star. But a brown dwarf will eventually radiate away its heat of creation. And it takes billions of years to evolve advanced life... Worth further investigation though!!
On edit: the article below lays out a case for brown dwarf planets that could exist in the (continually cooling) habitable zone of a Brown Dwarf for 0.1 to 10 billion years. That's potentially enough time for advanced life to evolve!
http://www.centauri-dreams.org/?p=13058