Alien planet lashed by huge flares from its ‘angry beast’ star

Scientists are tracking a large gas planet experiencing quite a quandary as it orbits extremely close to a young star — a predicament never previously observed.

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This exoplanet, as planets beyond our solar system are called, orbits its star so tightly that it appears to trigger flares from the stellar surface — larger than any observed from the sun — reaching several million miles (kilometers) into space that over time may strip much of this unlucky world’s atmosphere.

The phenomenon appears to be caused by the planet’s interaction with the star’s magnetic field, according to the researchers. And this star is a kind known to flare, especially when young.

“A young star of this type is an angry beast, especially if you're sitting as close up as this planet does,” said Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy astrophysicist Ekaterina Ilin, lead author of the study published in the journal Nature.

The star, called HIP 67522, is slightly more massive than the sun and is located about 407 light-years from Earth in the constellation Centaurus. A light-year is the distance light travels in a year, 5.9 trillion miles (9.5 trillion kilometers).