- Mar 17, 2015
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Scientists have spotted the largest flare ever recorded from the sun's nearest neighbor, the star Proxima Centauri.
...
CU Boulder astrophysicist Meredith MacGregor explained that Proxima Centauri is a small but mighty star. It sits just four light-years or more than 20 trillion miles from our own sun and hosts at least two planets, one of which may look something like Earth. It's also a "red dwarf," the name for a class of stars that are unusually petite and dim.
Proxima Centauri has roughly one-eighth the mass of our own sun. But don't let that fool you.
In their new study, MacGregor and her colleagues observed Proxima Centauri for 40 hours using nine telescopes on the ground and in space. In the process, they got a surprise: Proxima Centauri ejected a flare, or a burst of radiation that begins near the surface of a star, that ranks as one of the most violent seen anywhere in the galaxy.
"The star went from normal to 14,000 times brighter when seen in ultraviolet wavelengths over the span of a few seconds," said MacGregor, an assistant professor at the Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy (CASA) and Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences (APS) at CU Boulder.
The team's findings hint at new physics that could change the way scientists think about stellar flares. They also don't bode well for any squishy organism brave enough to live near the volatile star.
"If there was life on the planet nearest to Proxima Centauri, it would have to look very different than anything on Earth," MacGregor said. "A human being on this planet would have a bad time."
Enormous flare from sun's nearest neighbor breaks records -- ScienceDaily
And this isn't so uncommon tho for red dwarfs, where most exoplanets that have been found and imagined to be 'Earth like' by orbiting extremely close to those small cool stars.
The coup de grâce --
"A lot of the exoplanets that we've found so far are around these types of stars," she said. "But the catch is that they're way more active than our sun. They flare much more frequently and intensely."
...
Crispy planet
In all, the observed flare was roughly 100 times more powerful than any similar flare seen from Earth's sun. [ -- yikes! -- ] Over time, such energy can strip away a planet's atmosphere and even expose life forms to deadly radiation.
That type of flare may not be a rare occurrence on Proxima Centauri. In addition to the big boom in May 2019, the researchers recorded many other flares during the 40 hours they spent watching the star.
"Proxima Centauri's planets are getting hit by something like this not once in a century, but at least once a day if not several times a day," MacGregor said.
While I've pointed this out a few times, this is the most dramatic instance I've read about so far.
...
CU Boulder astrophysicist Meredith MacGregor explained that Proxima Centauri is a small but mighty star. It sits just four light-years or more than 20 trillion miles from our own sun and hosts at least two planets, one of which may look something like Earth. It's also a "red dwarf," the name for a class of stars that are unusually petite and dim.
Proxima Centauri has roughly one-eighth the mass of our own sun. But don't let that fool you.
In their new study, MacGregor and her colleagues observed Proxima Centauri for 40 hours using nine telescopes on the ground and in space. In the process, they got a surprise: Proxima Centauri ejected a flare, or a burst of radiation that begins near the surface of a star, that ranks as one of the most violent seen anywhere in the galaxy.
"The star went from normal to 14,000 times brighter when seen in ultraviolet wavelengths over the span of a few seconds," said MacGregor, an assistant professor at the Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy (CASA) and Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences (APS) at CU Boulder.
The team's findings hint at new physics that could change the way scientists think about stellar flares. They also don't bode well for any squishy organism brave enough to live near the volatile star.
"If there was life on the planet nearest to Proxima Centauri, it would have to look very different than anything on Earth," MacGregor said. "A human being on this planet would have a bad time."
Enormous flare from sun's nearest neighbor breaks records -- ScienceDaily
And this isn't so uncommon tho for red dwarfs, where most exoplanets that have been found and imagined to be 'Earth like' by orbiting extremely close to those small cool stars.
The coup de grâce --
"A lot of the exoplanets that we've found so far are around these types of stars," she said. "But the catch is that they're way more active than our sun. They flare much more frequently and intensely."
...
Crispy planet
In all, the observed flare was roughly 100 times more powerful than any similar flare seen from Earth's sun. [ -- yikes! -- ] Over time, such energy can strip away a planet's atmosphere and even expose life forms to deadly radiation.
That type of flare may not be a rare occurrence on Proxima Centauri. In addition to the big boom in May 2019, the researchers recorded many other flares during the 40 hours they spent watching the star.
"Proxima Centauri's planets are getting hit by something like this not once in a century, but at least once a day if not several times a day," MacGregor said.
While I've pointed this out a few times, this is the most dramatic instance I've read about so far.
