Astronomers have secured the initial unequivocal proof of a significant expulsion of charged gas from a remote star, representing a noteworthy progression in the exploration of space weather.

This eruption sprung from a red dwarf star approximately 130 light-years away. It has been classified as a coronal mass ejection (CME), akin to the explosive phenomena observed from the sun, which appear as vibrant auroras. These auroras arise when vast clouds of magnetized plasma engage with Earth’s atmospheric gases.

Researchers have long pondered whether other stars experience comparable blasts. Numerous exoplanets revolve perilously close to their small, volatile stars, putting them in jeopardy of stellar eruptions that could dismantle their atmospheres. If these stars regularly release substantial bursts, the neighboring planets are probably incapable of supporting life.

Detecting a CME outside of the sun clarifies decades-long uncertainties about the eruption occurrences in other stars. Until now, scientists had only gathered indirect indications, such as abrupt dimming or alterations in a star’s luminosity. Nonetheless, an international collective made the breakthrough by capturing a two-minute surge of radio waves originating from the star.

“This type of radio signal wouldn’t be present unless material had entirely exited the star’s region of intense magnetism,” commented Joe Callingham from the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy in a statement.

The discovery, detailed in Nature, utilized information from two significant European observatories: the Low Frequency Array, a continent-wide radio telescope network, and the XMM-Newton space observatory managed by the European Space Agency.

As a CME progresses, it generates a shock wave that produces radio waves transitioning from high to low frequencies over a period. The team recognized this pattern in the signal from the red dwarf, identified as StKM 1-1262, confirming that the eruption had left the star’s magnetic field and ventured into interstellar space.

“This eruption would be catastrophic for a planet around such a star,” remarked Callingham, the lead author of the paper.

On Earth, the atmosphere and magnetic field shield against the most detrimental consequences of solar radiation during solar storms. However, such events can interfere with satellites and power grids. For instance, a solar flare in March 1989 resulted in a 12-hour power outage in Quebec, Canada, and disrupted radio communications for Radio Free Europe.

The eruption from the red dwarf was extraordinary even by solar standards. The expelled material traveled at roughly 5.37 million mph, a velocity noted in only a small percentage of the sun’s CMEs. Such intensity could erase the atmosphere from any planet in close orbit to the star, exposing it to radiation and turning it into a desolate rock.

Red dwarfs like StKM 1-1262 are smaller and dimmer than the sun but exhibit much greater magnetic activity. They make up the majority of stars in the Milky Way and host the highest number of known Earth-sized planets. Since their habitable zones are situated nearer to the stars, these planets likely endure more frequent stellar storms.

“It appears that intense space weather may be even more pronounced around smaller stars — the main hosts of potentially habitable exoplanets,” stated Henrik Eklund, a European Space Agency research fellow based in the Netherlands.

Scientists spearheading a high-priority observation program with NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope aim to uncover whether rocky planets orbiting these stars, referred to as M-dwarfs, can maintain their atmospheres.

The initiative, first covered by Mashable in 2024, will employ Webb to look for indicators of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, through an innovative method known as the secondary eclipse technique. Concurrently, the Hubble Space Telescope will examine the stars’ ultraviolet radiation emissions.

“If it turned out that none of them possess atmospheres, that would be quite disheartening,” remarked Néstor Espinoza, an astronomer overseeing the program, “but it would also be very fascinating. It would imply that our planetary system is indeed quite exceptional.”

Upcoming observatories will expand on this finding to detect more stellar eruptions and analyze how they affect planetary environments across the galaxy.