Nature Podcast Huge eruption on a distant star confirmed at last
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Nov 12, 2025 David Conine, a radio astronomer at ASTRON, shares groundbreaking insights on detecting a coronal mass ejection from a distant star, highlighting its implications for exoplanet habitability. Ditte Demontis, a geneticist, discusses her research identifying rare gene variants linked to ADHD, shedding light on neurotransmitter mechanisms. The conversation also touches on the potential of CMEs to affect planetary atmospheres and the role of genetics in understanding ADHD, offering a fascinating look at the intersection of astronomy and neurodevelopment.
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Radio Drift Reveals Stellar CMEs
- Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) produce radio bursts that drift from high to low frequency as plasma moves into lower-density regions.
- Detecting this drifting radio signature on other stars provides direct evidence of mass ejections beyond the Sun and informs exoplanet impact models.
Big Data Needed To Find Rare Bursts
- The team searched ~100,000 stars for eight hours each, totaling about 100 years of stellar data to find one clear drifting burst.
- Large surveys and sensitive low-frequency arrays are key to finding rare stellar CME signals.
A Bright Minute-Long Burst
- The team found a minute-long burst about 20–30 times brighter than background noise with a clear high-to-low frequency sweep.
- They confirmed the signal originated from the M-dwarf STKM1-1262 and matched expected CME drift behavior.