Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Keele Univ/N.Wright et al; Illustration: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss

An artist's illustration depicts the interior of a low-mass star, such as the one seen in an X-ray image from Chandra in the inset. Such stars have different interior structures than our Sun. A new study looking at four of these low-mass stars shows the strength of magnetic fields of these stars - which is revealed by the amount of X-ray emission from the stars - are similar to those of more massive ones like the Sun. This discovery may have profound implications for understanding how the magnetic field in the Sun and stars like it are generated.

Provider: Chandra X-ray Observatory

Image Source: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2016/gj3253/

Curator: Chandra X-ray Observatory, Cambridge, MA, USA

Image Use Policy: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/image_use.html