Auroras can be one of the Earth's most striking features, lighting up the northern and southern skies in sheets of color. They appear when the Earth's magnetic field guides high-energy electrons from space into the atmosphere, where they interact with the gases present.
But we've since discovered that this phenomenon isn't limited to Earth. Other planets in our Solar System, provided they have atmospheres and a magnetic field, can also experience auroras. Notably, this includes the gas giants of the outer Solar System. Now, researchers have found evidence that a dim semi-star only 18 light years away also shows the characteristic glow of auroras. And there are indications that their glow may be a general feature of a broad range of objects.
The object in question, which goes by the catchy name LSR J1835 + 3259, is awkwardly on the boundary between a small star and a brown dwarf (an object with insufficient mass to set off hydrogen fusion). Like many other objects of this size, it rotates rapidly, completing one go-around in just under three hours.
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