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1h ago

Astronomers Confirm First Coronal Mass Ejection From a Star Beyond the Sun

Using LOFAR radio data plus XMM-Newton X-rays, researchers verified a rapid outburst from a nearby red dwarf with consequences for planetary atmospheres.

Image
A coronal mass ejection occurred August 31, 2012, as this long filament of the Sun’s atmosphere erupted into space. It traveled at 900 miles per second ( kilometers per second), but fortunately in a direction away from Earth. Credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
The Aurora Australis, also known as the Southern Lights, glows over a beach in Dunedin in New Zealand on November 13
More auroras are expected overnight triggered by a powerful solar storm

Overview

  • The Nature study, led by Joe Callingham, reports a definitive CME from a red dwarf roughly 40 light-years away, ending decades of uncertainty about stellar CMEs.
  • A short, intense LOFAR radio burst signaled material escaping the star’s magnetic environment, providing the key evidence for a true ejection.
  • Follow-up with ESA’s XMM-Newton established the star’s X-ray properties to place the event in a solar-physics context and confirm the CME’s motion.
  • The team estimated a speed near 2,400 km/s (about 1,500 miles per second), a velocity seen in only about 5% of solar CMEs and strong enough to strip atmospheres from close-in planets.
  • New LOFAR processing developed by Cyril Tasse and Philippe Zarka enabled the detection, and co-author David Konijn noted that neither telescope alone could have confirmed the event.