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Stars’ plasma spurts may be blocked by magnetic fields

Stars other than the sun are rarely seen spewing charged particles. A new experiment hints at why

A burst of plasma is ejected from the sun

Coronal mass ejections (shown) are regular occurrences on the sun. But they’re hard to find on other stars, and the stars’ magnetic fields could be the reason.

NASA/Goddard/SDO

By Emily Conover

The sun routinely blasts charged particles into space, but similar outbursts from other stars have been mysteriously hard to spot.