\tScience & Exploration<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t12\/11\/2025
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Astronomers using the European Space Agency\u2019s XMM-Newton<\/a> space observatory and the LOFAR telescope<\/a>\u00a0have definitively spotted an explosive burst of material thrown out into space by another star \u2013 a burst powerful enough to strip away the atmosphere of any unlucky planet in its path.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tA coronal mass ejection coming from the Sun on 27 May 2024<\/a><\/p>\n The burst was a coronal mass ejection (CME),<\/a> eruptions we often see coming from the Sun<\/a>. During a CME, massive amounts of material are flung out from our star, flooding the surrounding space. These dramatic expulsions shape and drive space weather<\/a>, such as the dazzling auroras we see on Earth, and can chip away at the atmospheres of any nearby planets.<\/p>\n But while CMEs are commonplace at the Sun,<\/a> we hadn\u2019t convincingly spotted one on another star \u2013 until now.<\/p>\n \u201cAstronomers have wanted to spot a CME on another star for decades,\u201d says Joe Callingham of the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON), author of the new research published in Nature. \u201cPrevious findings have inferred that they exist, or hinted at their presence, but haven\u2019t actually confirmed that material has definitively escaped out into space. We\u2019ve now managed to do this for the first time.\u201d<\/p>\n As a CME travels through the layers of a star out into interplanetary space, it produces a shock wave and associated burst of radio waves (a type of light<\/a>). This short, intense radio signal was picked up by Joe and colleagues and found to come from a star lying around 130 light-years away.<\/p>\n \u201cThis kind of radio signal just wouldn\u2019t exist unless material had completely left the star\u2019s bubble of powerful magnetism,\u201d adds Joe. \u201cIn other words: it\u2019s caused by a CME.\u201d<\/p>\n \tA danger to any planets<\/p>\n The matter-flinging star is a red dwarf \u2013 a type of star far fainter, cooler, and smaller than the Sun. It is nothing like our own star: it has roughly half the mass, it rotates 20 times faster, and has a magnetic field 300 times more powerful. Most of the planets known to exist in the Milky Way orbit this kind of star.<\/p>\n The radio signal was spotted using the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) radio telescope thanks to new data processing methods developed by co-authors Cyril Tasse and Philippe Zarka at the Observatoire de Paris-PSL. The team then used ESA\u2019s XMM-Newton to determine the star\u2019s temperature, rotation, and brightness in X-ray light. This was essential to interpret the radio signal and figure out what was actually going on.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tXMM-Newton<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cWe needed the sensitivity and frequency of LOFAR to detect the radio waves,\u201d says co-author David Konijn, a PhD student working with Joe at ASTRON. \u201cAnd without XMM-Newton, we wouldn\u2019t have been able to determine the CME\u2019s motion or put it in a solar context, both crucial for proving what we\u2019d found. Neither telescope alone would have been enough \u2013 we needed both.\u201d<\/p>\n The researchers determined the CME to be moving at a super-fast 2400 km per second, a speed only seen in 1 of every 2000 CMEs taking place on the Sun. The ejection was both fast and dense enough to completely strip away the atmospheres of any planets closely orbiting the star.<\/p>\n \tIn search of life<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tArtist’s impression of an explosion on another star<\/a><\/p>\n The atmosphere-stripping ability of the CME is an exciting discovery for our hunt for life around other stars<\/a>. A planet\u2019s habitability for life, as we know it, is defined by its distance from its parent star \u2013 whether or not it sits within the star\u2019s \u2018habitable zone\u2019, a region where liquid water can exist on the surface of planets with suitable atmospheres. This is a Goldilocks scenario: too close to the star is too hot, too far is too cold, and in between is just right.<\/p>\n But what if that star is especially active, regularly throwing out dangerous eruptions of material and triggering violent storms? A planet regularly bombarded by powerful coronal mass ejections may lose its atmosphere entirely, leaving a barren rock behind \u2013 an uninhabitable world, despite its orbit being \u2018just right\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cThis work opens up a new observational frontier for studying and understanding eruptions and space weather around other stars,\u201d adds Henrik Eklund, an ESA research fellow based at the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in Noordwijk, The Netherlands.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re no longer limited to extrapolating our understanding of the Sun’s CMEs to other stars. It seems that intense space weather may be even more extreme around smaller stars \u2013 the primary hosts of potentially habitable exoplanets. This has important implications for how these planets keep hold of their atmospheres and possibly remain habitable over time.\u201d<\/p>\n The finding also informs our understanding of space weather, something that\u2019s long been a focus for ESA missions and is currently being explored by SOHO<\/a>, the Proba missions<\/a>, Swarm<\/a>, and Solar Orbiter<\/a>.<\/p>\n XMM-Newton<\/a>, meanwhile, is a leading explorer of the hot and extreme Universe. Launched in 1999, the space telescope has gazed into the cores of galaxies, studied stars to understand how they evolve, investigated the environs of black holes, and spotted intense bursts of energetic radiation from distant stars and galaxies.<\/p>\n \u201cXMM-Newton is now helping us discover how CMEs vary by star, something that\u2019s not only interesting in our study of stars and our Sun, but also our hunt for habitable worlds around other stars,\u201d says ESA XMM-Newton Project Scientist Erik Kuulkers. \u201cIt also demonstrates the immense power of collaboration, which underpins all successful science. The discovery was a true team effort, and resolves the decades-long search for CMEs beyond the Sun.\u201d<\/p>\n \tNotes for editors<\/p>\n The paper, \u201cRadio Burst from a Stellar Coronal Mass Ejection\u201d by Callingham et al., is published in Nature on 12 November. DOI: 10.1038\/s41586-025-09715-3 https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41586-025-09715-3<\/a><\/p>\n XMM-Newton is part of the portfolio of science missions in ESA\u2019s Science Programme,<\/a> which includes several missions dedicated to the detection and characterisation of exoplanets<\/a>. ESA\u2019s next generation X-ray mission \u2013 NewAthena<\/a> \u2013 is poised to transform X-ray astronomy with pioneering European-developed optics, paving the way for groundbreaking discoveries for decades to come.<\/p>\n For more information, please contact:<\/p>\n