Astronomers have caught a rare and exciting glimpse of a young sun-like star unleashing a powerful double burst of plasma — superheated gas similar to what the modern Sun emits during solar storms.
This discovery offers new clues about how our own solar system may have looked billions of years ago, when Earth and other planets were just forming.
The young star, called EK Draconis, is located about 111 light-years away in the constellation Draco.
It’s often described as a “baby version” of the Sun, only a few hundred million years old.
Scientists believe that by studying it, we can better understand the conditions that shaped the early solar system — including how massive stellar explosions might have influenced the beginnings of life on Earth.
The research team, led by Kosuke Namekata from Kyoto University, combined data from both ground-based telescopes in Japan and Korea and the Hubble Space Telescope.
This allowed them to observe the star in optical and ultraviolet light at the same time, capturing details that had never been seen together before.
Their results revealed that EK Draconis ejected plasma in two distinct waves. First came an extremely hot burst, about 100,000 degrees Kelvin, blasting outward at speeds between 300 and 550 kilometers per second — roughly a million miles per hour.
Ten minutes later, a second wave of cooler gas, about 10,000 degrees Kelvin, followed at a slower pace of around 70 kilometers per second.
This two-temperature “one-two punch” is similar to the Sun’s own coronal mass ejections (CMEs), but on a far larger scale.
These young-star outbursts likely have tremendous power to strip away or alter the atmospheres of nearby planets. Until now, scientists could only measure the cooler parts of these stellar explosions, but this new observation shows that the hotter, faster components carry much more energy than anyone realized.
Because the young Sun likely behaved like EK Draconis, these findings shed light on the turbulent early days of our solar system.
Powerful CMEs may have bombarded Earth, triggering chemical reactions that helped form key molecules — such as greenhouse gases and the building blocks of life. In other words, these violent cosmic events might have helped set the stage for life to emerge.
The study, published in The Astrophysical Journal, highlights how ultraviolet astronomy can reveal the hidden activity of young stars.
The team plans to continue their research using X-rays, radio waves, and future space telescopes, including Japan’s upcoming LAPYUTA mission, to further explore how stars like EK Draconis shape the environments where new planets — and perhaps new life — are born.
Source: KSR.
