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Sunspots as you’ve never seen them before: Astronomers reveal video showing eruptions flowing and merging on a giant red star OUTSIDE our solar system
Astronomers from Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) created the video showing stellar spots on a star outside our solar system
The star is named XX Triangulum, located about 1,500 light-years away
Film was made using data collected by the Stella telescopes on Tenerife
Astronomers from Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) made the film using data collected by the Stella robotic telescopes on Tenerife.
It shows the growth and fade of giant stellar spots on the star over a period of six earth years.
The spots reveal an underlying magnetic cycle that has a period comparable to our sun’s, but is much stronger.
It’s incredibly difficult to image stellar surfaces other than our sun’s.
The astronomers compiled spectroscopic data – the interaction between matter and electromagnetic radiation – and used complex mathematics to make the film.