THE pull of a massive planet orbiting close to its parent star may be causing super-fast flips in the star’s magnetic field.
Rim Fares at the Paul Sabatier University in Toulouse, France, and colleagues, studied light from the star Tau Boötis to deduce the strength and orientation of its magnetic field. They found the star flips its magnetic poles every two years – 11 times faster than our sun. This is the first magnetic flip to be seen in a star other than the sun.
The team think the star’s fast cycle could be due to the strong gravitational force…
