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Solar Storms Can Trigger Auroras on Earth. This Star’s Explosion Could Destroy a Planet’s Atmosphere
The detected stellar eruption from red dwarf StKM 1-1262 is 10,000 to 100,000 times stronger than solar CMEs and could strip atmospheres from nearby exoplanets.
- On Wednesday, astronomers reported the first likely coronal mass ejection from red dwarf star StKM 1-1262, about 130 light-years from Earth, after reanalyzing LOFAR radio telescope data.
- Red dwarf stars, which dominate the galaxy, often host close-in planets with small habitable zones, so understanding their violent activity is crucial for assessing exoplanet habitability.
- Using RIMS, the researchers identified a type II radio burst from LOFAR data nearly 10 years ago, measuring a storm launched at 5.3 million miles per hour around StKM 1-1262 spinning 20 times faster with a stronger magnetic field.
- Nearby planets could lose atmospheres to such eruptions, risking barren worlds, while researchers plan follow-up studies and the Square Kilometre Array will search for more stellar CMEs.
- This detection opens a window into extrasolar space weather, resembling last week's solar storms and affecting communications, power grids and satellites on a larger scale.
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13 Articles
13 Articles
Astronomers say they have detected, for the first time, a giant explosion released by a star in our solar system. The explosion resembled in some ways those released by our Sun, such as the solar storms that graced Earth’s night sky with recent auroras last week, but on a much larger – and ominous – scale. Rather than causing a colorful aurora, this powerful explosion was more likely to have potentially devastating consequences for any nearby pl…
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Total News Sources13
Leaning Left1Leaning Right1Center9Last UpdatedBias Distribution82% Center
Bias Distribution
- 82% of the sources are Center
82% Center
C 82%
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