For the first time, astronomers have spotted a coronal mass ejection (CME) exploding from a star other than our Sun, carrying enough power to rip the very atmosphere from any planet it encounters.
The observation was revealed in a new paper published in Nature, based on data from the European Space Agency’s ground-based LOFAR telescope and the XMM-Newton space observatory. CMEs have significant effects on their surroundings that drive space weather, which can lead to beautiful auroras as well as dangerous electromagnetic storms.
Spotting A Distant Coronal Mass Ejection
“Astronomers have wanted to spot a CME on another star for decades,” said lead author Joe Callingham of the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON). “Previous findings have inferred that they exist, or hinted at their presence, but haven’t actually confirmed that material has definitively escaped out into space.”
“We’ve now managed to do this for the first time.”
The astronomers made their discovery by identifying a radio signal emitted 130 light-years from Earth, the result of a CME’s shockwave and radio burst. To do so, they used a new data-processing method they specially developed, as they combed through data collected by LOFAR. Once the signal was identified, the researchers turned to the European Space Agency’s XMM-Newton observatory to help them determine the red dwarf’s brightness, rotation, and temperature, to more completely understand what they were observing.
“This kind of radio signal just wouldn’t exist unless material had completely left the star’s bubble of powerful magnetism,” adds Callingham. “In other words: it’s caused by a CME.”
a Red Dwarf CME
The star observed in this event couldn’t be more different than our own, yet it is the most common type in our galaxy: a red dwarf. Cooler and fainter than our Sun, it carries roughly half its mass, yet its rotation is 20 times faster, producing a magnetic field that is 300 times stronger.
“We needed the sensitivity and frequency of LOFAR to detect the radio waves,” says co-author David Konijn, a PhD student working with Callingham at ASTRON. “And without XMM-Newton, we wouldn’t have been able to determine the CME’s motion or put it in a solar context, both crucial for proving what we’d found.”
“Neither telescope alone would have been enough,” Konjin said. “We needed both.”
The red dwarf’s CME was tremendously powerful by the standards of our Sun. Only about 0.05% of CMEs in our solar system reach the 2400 km per second speed that this event exhibited. Between the CME’s speed and high density, any closely orbiting stars would have had their atmospheres ripped away by its overwhelming force.
Life on Exoplanets
Observing such a violent cosmic event doesn’t just provide evidence for CMEs coming from distant stars; it also brings new insight into the search for life outside of our solar system. Given that the first CME discovered outside our solar system was abnormally destructive by our local standards, it raises questions about what researchers know regarding habitable zones, a key component in the search for life elsewhere in our universe.
Habitable zones are the so-called “Goldilocks” region, in which a planet is close enough to its star that its surface water is not entirely frozen, yet far enough away that its water isn’t heated so much that it is lost as steam. The intensity of the newly observed CME suggests that researchers need to pay more attention to the local star volatility, given that while the exoplanet in question is theoretically the ideal habitable distance from its sun, extreme solar activity could roast such a planet, transforming it into a barren ball of space rock, rather than a perfect candidate for a world potentially teeming with life.
Looking Beyond the Sun
“This work opens up a new observational frontier for studying and understanding eruptions and space weather around other stars,” commented Henrik Eklund, an ESA research fellow based at the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC), in a press release for the study.
For the first time, researchers have direct evidence of how CMEs behave on another star, rather than just extrapolations from observing our Sun. The implication, based on the team’s observations, is that smaller stars are prone to even more extreme events.
“XMM-Newton is now helping us discover how CMEs vary by star, something that’s not only interesting in our study of stars and our Sun, but also our hunt for habitable worlds around other stars,” said ESA XMM-Newton Project Scientist Erik Kuulkers. “It also demonstrates the immense power of collaboration, which underpins all successful science.”
“The discovery was a true team effort, and resolves the decades-long search for CMEs beyond the Sun,” he added.
The paper, “Radio Burst from a Stellar Coronal Mass Ejection,” appeared in Nature on November 12, 2025.
Ryan Whalen covers science and technology for The Debrief. He holds an MA in History and a Master of Library and Information Science with a certificate in Data Science. He can be contacted at ryan@thedebrief.org, and follow him on Twitter @mdntwvlf.