First stellar Coronal Mass Ejection detected beyond our Sun
Summary
A team of astronomers has made the first definitive detection of a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) from a star other than the Sun. The event — observed from a nearby red dwarf about 130 light years away — produced a radio signature captured by the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) and was characterised using ESA’s XMM-Newton X-ray observatory. The CME was measured travelling at roughly 2,400 km/s, a velocity rarely seen in solar CMEs, and was dense and fast enough to strip atmospheres from planets in close orbit, raising questions about habitability around red dwarfs.
Key Points
- This is the first confirmed observation of stellar material escaping a star as a CME beyond the Sun.
- The CME was detected via a radio burst with LOFAR; XMM-Newton X-ray data helped confirm the star’s activity and interpret the signal.
- The ejection travelled at about 2,400 km/s — a speed only seen very rarely in solar CMEs.
- The source star is a red dwarf roughly half the Sun’s mass, rotating ~20 times faster and with a magnetic field ~300× stronger than the Sun’s.
- Such extreme CMEs can completely strip atmospheres from close-in planets, impacting their potential habitability despite being in the habitable zone.
Why should I read this?
Quick heads-up: if you care about exoplanets, habitability or why some Earth-like worlds might actually be barren, this matters. Scientists have for decades guessed CMEs happen on other stars — now they’ve actually caught one in the act. It changes how we think about whether planets around the common red dwarfs can keep their air. Short version: it gets interesting fast.
Context and Relevance
The discovery settles a long-standing question about whether CME-like eruptions can launch material far enough from other stars to affect surrounding space. Red dwarfs are the most common stellar hosts of exoplanets; if intense space weather like this is typical, many close-orbiting planets could lose their atmospheres over time. That has direct consequences for target selection in the search for life and for models of atmospheric retention and evolution on exoplanets. The work also highlights the value of coordinated radio and X-ray observations for diagnosing stellar eruptions.
Author style
Punchy: this is a neat, game-changing observational result. If you follow exoplanets or stellar physics, read the original study — it directly influences how we assess habitability around the most common stars in our galaxy.