ESO telescopes are being used to search for the subtle signs of magnetic fields in other stars and even to map out the star spots on their surfaces. This information is beginning to reveal how and why so many stars, including our own Sun, are magnetic, and what the implications might be for life on Earth and elsewhere in the Universe.

Credit: ESO

Made in collaboration with, and funded by, the EU COST Action MP1104 "Polarisation as a tool to study the solar system and beyond".

Editing: Herbert Zodet.
Web and technical support: Mathias André and Raquel Yumi Shida.
Written by: Christopher Marshall, Richard Hook and Frans Snik.
Narration: Sara Mendes da Costa.
Music: Thomas Edward Rice (outofnothing.bandcamp.com).
Footage and photos: ESO, L. Calçada, M. Kornmesser, A. Santerne, C. Malin (christophmalin.com),
ESA/Hubble, NASA/SDO and the AIA, EVE and HMI science teams, SOHO (ESA/NASA),
STEREO (NASA), PROBA2 (ESA), Yohkoh (JAXA/NASA/PPARC), GSFC,
Royal Observatory of Belgium, LMSAL, SDAC, Stanford University, MSU/SDO-FFT,
the Institute for Solar Physics/Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope (SST)/Michiel van Noort and
Luc Rouppe van der Voort, Oslo, Göran Scharmer et al. from the Institute for Solar Physics, Oleg Kochukhov,
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio (Tom Bridgman (GST): Lead Animator/
Scott Wiessinger (USRA): Lead Producer/William D. Pesnell (NASA/GSFC): Lead Scientist),
Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Corporation/Jardine & Donati, F. Char, Poul Jensen,
José Francisco Salgado (josefrancisco.org), Y. Beletsky (LCO) and B. Tafreshi (twanight.org).
Directed by: Herbert Zodet.
Executive producer: Lars Lindberg Christensen.