Avi Loeb Warns: NASA’s Latest Discovery Raises Serious Concerns About Proxima B!

Proxima B: From Earth Twin to Radioactive Wasteland

Once hailed as a potential Earth-like planet, Proxima B—orbiting the closest star to the Sun—has been deemed uninhabitable. The planet, which is tidally locked to its parent star, Proxima Centauri, faces constant and extreme radiation storms that make life as we know it impossible.

A Deadly Discovery

NASA, using data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the TESS satellite, confirmed that Proxima B is continuously bombarded by stellar flares hundreds of times more intense than anything Earth has experienced. Unlike the Sun’s flares, these radiation storms are extinction-level events. Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb has described Proxima B as a planetary wasteland, receiving relentless bursts of X-rays and ultraviolet radiation that strip away any potential atmosphere.

The Final Blow to Habitability

One particularly massive flare, hundreds of times stronger than the 1859 Carrington Event (which disrupted Earth’s telegraph systems), likely sealed the planet’s fate. Proxima B, lacking a strong magnetic field, could not shield itself from the onslaught. The resulting ionization of its atmosphere would have stripped away essential gases within hours, leaving a barren, rocky surface exposed to the vacuum of space.

Temperature models further confirm the planet’s inhospitable nature. Proxima B experiences extreme heat on its day side, reaching 300°F (149°C), while the night side plummets to -328°F (-200°C). The absence of an atmosphere prevents any chance of stabilizing these conditions, making the planet even more lifeless than Mars.

A Shift in Priorities

This discovery has major implications for the search for life beyond Earth. Red dwarf stars, which make up 75% of the Milky Way’s stars, were once considered promising for habitability. However, their violent flaring may make planets in their habitable zones fundamentally uninhabitable. NASA is now prioritizing exoplanets orbiting more stable, Sun-like stars, such as Kepler-452b, which orbits a G-type star 1,400 light-years away.

Could Life Exist on Proxima B?

While traditional life seems impossible, some scientists speculate that extreme life forms could theoretically adapt. On Earth, microbes have been found thriving in nuclear reactors and acidic environments. Could Proxima B host organisms that utilize radiation as an energy source?

One radical hypothesis suggests that life there might not be carbon-based at all. Researchers at the University of Aberdeen have modeled radiotrophic life forms that could withstand Proxima B’s extreme radiation by repairing DNA damage in real time. Others at MIT propose that the planet’s conditions might favor life operating on quantum coherence principles, where microbial networks communicate through quantum entanglement rather than chemical processes.

Beyond biology, some theories push even further, suggesting that self-replicating AI systems—perhaps remnants of a long-extinct alien civilization—could have adapted to Proxima B’s extreme environment. Such synthetic life could exist without the need for an atmosphere or liquid water, using radiation as an energy source.

The Future of Exploration

Despite Proxima B’s apparent lifelessness, it remains an important testbed for studying the interactions between planets and their stars. While NASA shifts its focus to more promising targets, private initiatives like Breakthrough Listen continue scanning Proxima B for technosignatures, hoping to detect signs of artificial intelligence or non-biological life.

This discovery is not just the story of a dead world—it’s a turning point in how we search for life in the universe. Proxima B’s fate serves as a warning: not all planets in the habitable zone are truly habitable, and our approach to finding life must evolve.