Earth's magnetic field protects life on our blue planet — and astronomers just found evidence of a magnetic field on a rocky exoplanet 12 light-years away.
On Earth, we often take our planet’s magnetic field for granted. It protects living creatures from the sun’s rays, draws compass needles north and even creates beautiful auroras. Other worlds in our solar system have magnetic fields too — but what about Earth-like planets around other stars? New research may have revealed a promising lead.
Magnetic fields are particularly interesting to astronomers because they’re an important part of making a planet habitable. Without a magnetic field, energetic particles from a star can erode a planet’s atmosphere, stripping away the blanket of gas that can support life. This is so close in that the planet “plows” through material sloughing off of the star, according to the researchers. The planet’s magnetic field pushes electrically charged plasma back toward the star, which then interacts with the star’s own magnetic field, emitting bright flashes of energy.
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