ISTANBUL

Astronomers have, for the first time, identified a massive coronal mass ejection erupting from a star outside our solar system, a discovery researchers say could have catastrophic implications for any nearby planets.

The finding, described last week in the journal Nature, came after scientists reanalyzed decade-old observations from the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) radio telescope, according to a CNN report.

The blast originated from StKM 1-1262, a red dwarf about 130 light-years away, and tore into space at 5.3 million miles per hour.

The study's coauthor Cyril Tasse of the Paris Observatory said the star “behaves like an extremely magnetized, boiling bucket of plasma. This burst is 10 to 100 thousand times more powerful than the strongest the sun can produce.”

Lead author Joe Callingham of the University of Amsterdam said the team detected a type II radio burst, a signal that appears only when material has fully escaped a star’s magnetic field.

“This kind of radio signal just wouldn’t exist unless material had completely left the star’s bubble of powerful magnetism,” he said. “In other words, it’s caused by a CME (coronal mass ejection).”

The eruption’s force could strip the atmosphere of any closely orbiting world, according to the finding.

“The protective magnetic field we have on Earth would not be able to withstand the pressure of the CME,” Callingham warned, adding that even a planet in a theoretically habitable zone could be reduced to “a barren rock behind (kind of like Mars).”

'A taste of what’s to come'

Independent experts say the detection marks a breakthrough in extrasolar space weather.

US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientist Mark Miesch, who was not involved in the study, noted that the emission pattern “is comparable to the sonic boom of a fighter jet” and matches the signatures of solar CMEs observed from Earth.

Researchers used LOFAR’s sensitivity alongside X-ray data from the European Space Agency’s XMM-Newton mission to track the blast’s speed, density, and motion — a combination they say finally confirms what astronomers had long suspected but never proven.

The team now hopes to explore how such small stars generate colossal eruptions and what repeated events mean for the survival of nearby planets.

Callingham, who also oversees science planning for the Square Kilometre Array, set to become the world’s largest radio telescope in 2028, said the discovery is only an opening chapter.

“This is only the beginning, and hopefully a taste of what’s to come,” as Miesch put it.