Cosmic Tempest: Inside a Massive Stellar Storm

Recently, an international team, including astronomer Joseph Callingham and other UCL astronomers, made a groundbreaking observation. For the first time, we have a clear signal of a giant stellar eruption outside our Solar System. This significant burst would have devastating effects on any orbiting planets, even though it shows many similarities to processes on our Sun.

Artist's impression of a coronal mass ejection around a nearby star. Copyright and credit to Olena Shmahalo/Callingham et al.

What is it, and how was it discovered

The Observatoire de Paris-CNRS and ASTRON (Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy) captured short and intense bursts of radio waves near a red dwarf star. They then noticed that such bursts were similar to our Sun's Coronal Mass Ejection (CME), which are large eruptions of magnetized plasma from stars that play an important role in shaping Earth's weather and even creating the auroras we see. This news becomes prominent because it supports a long-standing theory that the CME process also occurs in stars beyond our solar system.

Planets and Red Dwarfs

Planets with mass similar to Earth's are most commonly found orbiting red dwarfs, stars with 10-50% our Sun's mass. Due to the planet's proximity to the star, its habitable zone (where there can be liquid water on the planet's surface, not turning into gas or solid) is quite close to the star itself, making it especially vulnerable to stellar storms. This study shows that violent space weather isn't unique to the Sun but occurs in stars beyond our system.

Importance

This news has major implications for the study of planetary habitability, suggesting that some planets may be too close to highly active stars to support life. This discovery also raises questions about whether such a process is common to all red dwarfs and increases the study of stellar eruptions and their effects on a planet's lifespan.

Related links:

Leiden University: https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/news/2025/11/evidence-of-a-massive-stellar- storm-on-a-nearby-star?utm_source=chatgpt.com

UCL news: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2025/nov/evidence-massive-stellar-storm-nearby-star

Paris Observatory: https://observatoiredeparis.psl.eu/evidence-of-a-massive-stellar.html