New Delhi: The Sun frequently erupts in Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) where charged plasma from the surface is hurled outwards into space. These CMEs influence all the worlds that they encounter, including the Earth. Astronomers had long suspected that other stars have to erupt in similar explosions too, but none have been spotted so far. For the first time, a team of astronomers have detected a CME from a nearby star. The CME was identified by the telltale signature of light, an associated burst of radio waves. The star is at a distance of about 130 lightyears from the Earth.

The star that produced the CME is much cooler and dimmer than the Earth. The star is also much smaller, containing roughly half the mass of the Sun, and is rotating about 20 times faster. It has a magnetic field 30

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