SPACE
Alien planet ‘aurorae’ may send signals towards Earth
WORDS BRANDON SPECKTOR
Four brand-new alien planets have potentially been discovered after scientists detected the shimmering radio flashes of aurorae in those planets’ atmospheres. Aurorae occur when the solar wind, intense gusts of electric particles belched out by the Sun, smash into a planet’s magnetic shield. Earth experiences aurorae near the north and south poles, where miraculous displays of colour and light streak through the sky. But this pleasant light show is only a piece of the story; astronomers know that the cosmic clash of the solar wind and magnetic fields also produces bright flashes of radio light that can be seen far across the galaxy. To an alien observer hundreds of light years away, the aurorae of Earth may look like sudden, bright explosions of radio energy.