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Astronomers have spotted a powerful burst from a star about 130 light-years away. The burst is so powerful that it can reduce any planet in its path to a bare rock. This is the first confirmed sighting of such a burst on a star other than the Sun.
Our Sun usually flings out massive amounts of material. These ejections are called Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs). CMEs are so powerful that they determine space weather. Astronomers have been trying to determine definitively whether other stars also produce CMEs, and finally, they have.
Joe Callingham of the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON) and his team carried out this research. They used the ESA’s XMM-Newton space observatory and the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) radio telescope to spot a CME coming from a star about 130 light-years away.
When CMEs travel out from a star into interplanetary space, a burst of radio waves is produced. The team used LOFAR to pick up the radio signals. They then used ESA’s XMM-Newton to determine the star’s temperature, rotation, and brightness in X-ray light.
The star that produced the CME is a red dwarf. It is much cooler than our Sun. In size, it is also very different from our Sun. The red dwarf’s mass is about half that of our Sun. It has a magnetic field 300 times more powerful and rotates 20 times faster. The CME it produced is also moving at an incredible speed — 2,400 km per second. Only one out of every 2000 CMEs from our Sun has been observed to travel this fast.
This discovery has opened up a new layer in the search for life outside our solar system. Astronomers now have data from another star to use in understanding the effect of CMEs on potentially habitable exoplanets. This study was published in the journal Nature.
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Chibuike Okpara – Tech Writer – 291 articles published on Notebookcheck since 2024
I have always been fascinated by technology and digital devices my entire life and even got addicted to it. I have always marveled at the intricacy of even the simplest digital devices and systems around us. I have been writing and publishing articles online for about 6 years now, just about a year ago, I found myself lost in the marvel of smartphones and laptops we have in our hands every day. I developed a passion for learning about new devices and technologies that come with them and at some point, I asked myself, “Why not get into writing tech articles?” It is useless to say I followed up the idea — it is evident. I am an open-minded individual who derives an infinite amount of joy from researching and discovering new information, I believe there is so much to learn and such a short life to live, so I put my time to good use — learning new things. I am a ‘bookworm’ of the internet and digital devices. When I am not writing, you will find me on my devices still, I do explore and admire the beauty of nature and creatures. I am a fast learner and quickly adapt to changes, always looking forward to new adventures.