Stellar mass ejections

TL;DR

This paper reviews the current understanding of stellar prominences in rapidly-rotating stars, their ejection processes, and their significance in stellar magnetic activity and evolution.

Contribution

It synthesizes recent observations and insights into stellar prominences, highlighting their role in stellar mass loss and magnetic field structure, especially in young stars.

Findings

Stellar prominences can be significantly more massive than solar prominences.

Ejection of prominences contributes to stellar angular momentum and mass loss.

Recent detections suggest prominences are common in young stars.

Abstract

It has been known for some time now that rapidly-rotating solar-like stars possess the stellar equivalent of solar prominences. These may be three orders of magnitude more massive than their solar counterparts, and their ejection from the star may form a significant contribution to the loss of angular momentum and mass in the stellar wind. In addition, their number and distribution provide valuable clues as to the structure of the stellar corona and hence to the nature of magnetic activity in other stars. Until recently, these "slingshot prominences" had only been observed in mature stars, but their recent detection in an extremely young star suggests that they may be more widespread than previously thought. In this review I will summarise our current understanding of these stellar prominences, their ejection from their stars and their role in elucidating the (sometimes very non-solar) behaviour of stellar magnetic fields.