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19-02-2020
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The hunt for exo-aurorae

Submitter: Harish Vedantham
Description: What could be more fascinating than aurorae -- the shimmering curtains of light that blanket the Earth’s poles? Aurorae in planetary systems around other stars, or “extra-solar” aurorae!

The image is an artist's depiction of LOFAR’s discovery of radio emission associated with auroral activity around the star GJ1151.
After eliminating competing explanations for the radio emission, we realised that the aurora is actually glowing on the star, but is being powered by an orbiting exoplanet, as described in this animation. The image depicts a stream of plasma flowing along the magnetic field-lines of GJ1151. Near the polar regions of the star, the plasma emits radio waves before crashing into the star to produce aurorae. This discovery published in nature astronomy, is the first step towards using radio observations to discover habitable exoplanets and studying the plasma environment they experience.

For more information see:
ASTRON's press release ( click here)
nature astronomy news & views article ( clilck here)
Copyright: CC BY-NC-SA (Danielle Futselaar)
 
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