Tiny Red Dwarf Star More Powerful Than The Sun

The sun takes approximately 25 days to complete a full rotation at its equator, according to the astronomers.

For such a small, cool star, TVLM 513-46546 – the official name of the M9 dwarf – can be rather tempestuous.

It’s possible that the magnetic field has to do with the star’s regularly occurring eruptions that are like solar flares. When magnetic field lines emerging from the star’s visible “surface” snap and then reconnect, they release a torrent of powerful energy in the form of X-rays, ultraviolet light and electrons. The flares create tightly wound magnetic fields around the circumference of the sun, creating a natural particle accelerator by changing the path of electrons and making them emit radio signals, which were picked up by the ALMA team.

Red dwarfs like TVLM 513 are at a disadvantage in this regard because their stellar winds are less powerful than the Sun’s, so they do not lose angular momentum as quickly and hence continue their fast rotation.

When studying the object with ALMA, the researchers detected powerful radio signals that betrayed the star’s magnetic personality.

Having a mass of about 10 percent of that of the Sun, the star straddles the line between a star, which fuses hydrogen, and a brown dwarf, which does not. It is so active, argue astronomers, that if our planet was in orbit around this star, satellites would not function.

“If we lived around a star like this one, we wouldn’t have any satellite communications”. Our sun takes a month to make a full revolution. They detected flare-like emissions at a frequency of 95 GHz. Secondly, its magnetic field is several hundred times more powerful than the Sun, which is odd, as this shouldn’t normally be happening in a tiny red dwarf. Additionally, it’s the first time that this type of star has been recognized at millimeter wavelengths, opening a new avenue of study with ALMA.

About three-fourths of the 100 billion stars in the Milky Way are red dwarf stars, and these extremely common stars have been quite interesting for scientists through the years. You might think that smaller, cooler stars would be even more sedate.

A dim red dwarf star with just one-tenth the mass of the Sun has been shown to possess a magnetic field so strong that its average strength rivals that of the most extreme active regions on our Sunday.

Our Sun generates similar emission from solar flares but only intermittently.

This has critical implications for the hunt for habitable planets outside the solar system. And since scientists have also been wondering if there are any other planets in our galaxy that are habitable, the importance of understanding red dwarfs is especially highlighted. That closeness would put the planet right in the bull’s-eye for radiation that could destroy its atmosphere or ruin any intricate molecules on the planet, the researchers said.

Astronomers will study similar stars in the future to determine whether this one is an oddball or an example of an entire class of stormy stars.

“These findings have been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal”.