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Astronomers Witness Unprecedented Stellar Eruption from Distant Red Dwarf Star
16 Nov
Summary
- Astronomers detect first-ever coronal mass ejection from a star beyond our solar system
- The explosive event was 10-100,000 times more powerful than the strongest solar storms
- The rapid burst of material could potentially strip the atmosphere of any nearby exoplanet
In a groundbreaking discovery, astronomers have detected the first-ever coronal mass ejection (CME) from a star beyond our solar system. The explosive event, observed from a red dwarf star named StKM 1-1262 located 130 light-years from Earth, was 10 to 100,000 times more powerful than the strongest solar storms.
The stellar storm was launched at a blazing speed of 5.3 million miles per hour (2,400 kilometers per second), a velocity only seen in about 1 in every 2,000 CMEs released from our sun. This rapid burst of material was powerful enough that it could potentially strip away the atmosphere of any closely orbiting planet, posing a serious threat to the habitability of such worlds.
