Solar storms can trigger auroras on Earth. This star’s explosion could destroy a planet’s atmosphere

A coronal mass ejection releases from the left side of the sun in May 2024. SOHO (ESA & NASA)/NASA/SDO/AIA/JHelioviewer/D. Müller

For the first time, astronomers say they have spotted a giant explosion released by a star beyond our solar system. The eruption was similar in some ways to those unleashed by our sun, such as the solar storms that graced the night skies with auroras last week on Earth, but at a much grander — and ominous — scale.

Rather than triggering colorful northern lights, this powerful explosion was more likely to have potentially devastating consequences for any nearby planet, according to new research.

A coronal mass ejection, or a CME, was the likely cause of the explosive event. In our solar system, this phenomenon is a large cloud of ionized gas, called plasma