Free Astronomy Magazine January-February 2016

SPACE CHRONICLES nications. In fact, it might be extre- mely difficult for life to evolve at all in such a stormy environment," says lead author Peter Williams of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for As- trophysics (CfA) in Cambridge, Mas- Cool, dim dwarf star is magnetic powerhouse by ALMA/ESO A stronomers using the Ata- cama Large Millimeter/sub- millimeter Array (ALMA) have discovered that a dim, cool dwarf star is gener- ating a surprisingly powerful magnetic field, one that rivals the most intense magnetic regions of our own Sun. The star’s extraordi- nary magnetic field is potentially asso- ciated with a con- stant flurry of so- lar-flare-like erup- tions. As with our Sun, these flares would trace tightly wound magnetic field lines that act like cosmic particle accelerators: warp- ing the path of elec- trons and causing them to emit tell- tale radio signals that can be detect- ed with ALMA. Such intense flare activi- ty, the astronomers note, would bar- rage nearby planets with charged parti- cles. "If we lived around a star like this one, we wouldn’t have any satellite commu- A rtist impression of red dwarf star TVLM 513-46546. ALMA observations sug- gest that it has an amazingly powerful magnetic field, potentially associated with a flurry of solar-flare-like eruptions. [Dana Berry (NRAO/AUI/NSF) / SkyWorks]