Aurora discovery 'helps search for planets'

The phenomenon that causes the 'northern lights' has been spotted outside of our solar system for the first time.

The display was spotted around a brown dwarf, which is a middle ground between a star and a planet, Dr Stuart Littlefair told the Today programme.

"We’ve proved that this auroral process exists outside our solar system," said the University of Sheffield astronomer.

This helps us a lot with our search for planets around other stars as we can look for the radio emissions from the auroras, explained Dr Littlefair.