In a recent study, astronomers from the University of Valencia (VIU) in Spain published a detailed image of the first radiation belt detected outside our solar system. In this case, the celestial body is literally surrounded by these regions of charged particles (protons and electrons). It is a brown dwarf, popularly known as a “failed star”.

This pejorative term describes a class of substellar objects not yet fully understood by astronomers. Not large enough to be classified as a star but too massive to be a planet, brown dwarfs have the radio emission characteristic of planets and stars.

Image taken from object LSR J1835+3259 and published in the magazine Science, is very similar to the well-known radiation belts on Earth and Jupiter. But the magnetic field observed in the brown dwarf is at least ten times greater than that of the largest planet in the solar system and still reveals some unknown details of this ultra-cool star.

Incandescent Auroras

Among the secrets the study reveals is that, just like on Earth and Jupiter, LSRJ1835’s large radiation belt produces auroras near the poles. But unlike ours, they produce such a huge form of energy that for tourists their sparkle is much more than just a sparkle.

“These auroras release very intense energy at very high temperatures, “This produces radio emission peaks that are 10 times greater than the total emission of LSRJ1835,” says co-author and professor of astronomy at VIU, José Carlos Guirado, in a press release.

Additionally, according to the team’s data, it is possible that this brown dwarf may host an exoplanet.

Why are brown dwarf radiation belts so important?

Radio images of LSR J1835+3259 reconstructed using the European VLBI Network.

The donut-shaped radiation belt of LSR J1835+3259 is an evolution of the belts on Earth and Jupiter. According to the study’s first author, astronomer Juan Bautista Climent, “No more Knowledge gained through years of observations of Jupiter and applying it to other objects outside the Solar System“.

The similarity of the belts when placed side by side is only visible because “the diameter of the magnetic structure around the ultracool dwarf is tens to millions of times larger than that of Jupiter,” the VIU professor explains in a statement. strong”.

In addition to spinning three times faster than Jupiter, LSRJ1835 produces a magnetic field “similar to that emitted in an MRI machine,” Climent says. This allowed for an excellent understanding of the object’s surroundings and interior and a resolution that was 50 times better. The researcher concluded that it was higher than that of the James Webb Space Telescope.

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Source: Tec Mundo

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I'm Blaine Morgan, an experienced journalist and writer with over 8 years of experience in the tech industry. My expertise lies in writing about technology news and trends, covering everything from cutting-edge gadgets to emerging software developments. I've written for several leading publications including Gadget Onus where I am an author.

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