The first radiation belt outside the solar system has been spotted
For the first time, astronomers have spotted a band of radiation surrounding an object outside our solar system. A belt of energetic electrons encircles a Jupiter-sized body about 18 light-years from Earth, astronomers report May 15 in Nature. As the electrons move, they radiate radio waves. Such radiation belts give insight into the shape of a cosmic object’s magnetic field, its interior structure and maybe even whether it has moons. In our solar system, every planet with a worldwide magnetic field has radiation belts. Earth has the Van Allen belts, rings of electrons captured from the sun (SN: 3/19/14). Jupiter’s radiation belts get most of their particles from the volcanic moon Io. In these cases, the planet’s magnetic field traps electrons in a bubble around the planet, like fireflies in a jar. To find similar belts outside the solar system, astronomer Melodie Kao and colleagues observed a Jupiter-sized object called LSR J1835+3259 with...