Thursday, July 30, 2015

Astronomers first recorded aurora outside our solar system – BBC

The astronomers first recorded aurora outside our solar system, watching a brown dwarf, called LSR J1835 in the constellation Lyra. The results of the scientists were published in the journal Nature.

Aurora, also known as the aurora borealis – the glow of the upper atmosphere of planets have magnetosphere because of their interaction with the charged particles of the solar wind. Auroras can be seen not only in the world – they happen, for example, Venus or Mars.

Scientists have for the first time managed to capture the aurora outside our solar system – namely, on a brown dwarf LSR J1835 in the constellation Lyra, which is located at a distance of 18.5 light-years away. Brown dwarfs – a cosmic body mass occupies an intermediate position between the mass of the planets and stars. From ordinary stars, they differ in their temperature never reaches the values ​​required for the occurrence of major fusion reaction – the conversion of hydrogen into helium, which provides long-term glow of the stars. Astronomers believe that aurorae on brown dwarfs may influence the ongoing processes on their surface, and plan to continue to study this phenomenon.

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