Northern Lights seen outside the Solar System – The Universal

A group of astronomers discovered for the first time outside the Plot system, the existence of lights , similar to the northern or southern phenomenon on Earth, in a brown dwarf star and a power 10 000 times more, according to a study published in the journal Nature .

LSR J1835 + 3259 located 18 light years from Earth is named of the brown dwarf star where astronomers have discovered the first dawn view a stellar object beyond the solar system.

The auroras are one of the most beautiful phenomena that can be seen in the sky and earth is caused by the interaction of planet’s magnetic field with the solar wind, but which has observer status in the star is due to a different process.

This discovery has implications for the study of exoplanets, the study conducted by experts from the Universities of Sheffield and Oxford.

brown dwarfs , also called “failed stars”, are difficult to detect and remain difficult to classify, because it has a lot of mass to be planets but too small to shoot inside the thermonuclear reactions that fuel the stars.

Dr Stuart Littlefair, University of Sheffield said These results are further proof that we must think brown dwarfs as “reinforced rather than as failed stars planets.”

“We already knew that brown dwarfs have atmospheres with clouds like the planets but are you made of minerals that form rocks on Earth, but now we know that brown dwarfs also have powerful auroras, “he said.

The international team of researchers looked at LSR J1835 + 3259 from the observatory radio astronomy Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) in New Mexico, as well as to the Hel Palomar and Keck telescopes in Hawaii.

Their observations show that cooler stars and brown dwarfs have atmospheres outer bearing auroral activity, rather than the type of magnetic activity seen in other hottest stars or more mass.

This discovery reveals an important difference between the magnetic activity of stars more massive and registered in brown dwarfs and planets.

“All magnetic activity we have seen in this object can be explained by the powerful auroras,” said Gregg Hallinan, California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and director of the study adding that this indicates that the auroral activity replaces the solar corona in brown dwarf and smaller objects.

The aurora scientists observed it seemed driven by a dynamo process little understood and similar to which has been on planets largest Plot system.

“What we have seen in this subject seems to be the same phenomenon that we have observed, for example, on Jupiter, but hundreds of times more powerful, “Hallinan said,” suggesting that it may be possible to detect this type of activity on extrasolar planets, many of which are significantly greater than the mass of Jupiter. “

Littlefair, meanwhile, said that “sometimes the best of a scientific result is simply discover something exciting and new.”

The northern lights “is one of the most spectacular and beautiful things that can be seen” and since I always wanted to see again and so far has not had the opportunity, Littlefair saw a “irony” have discovered a much larger and more powerful than those on Earth and “light years away” aurora.

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