Astronomers Detect Extreme Flare from Proxima Centauri
Anti-aristarchus writes:
Astronomers Detect Extreme Flare from Proxima Centauri:
Proxima Centauri, the smallest member of the Alpha Centauri system, is an M5.5-type star located 4.244 light-years away in the southern constellation of Centaurus.
The star has a measured radius of 14% the radius of the Sun, a mass of about 12% solar, and an effective temperature of only around 3,050 K (2,777 degrees Celsius, or 5,031 degrees Fahrenheit).
[...] Proxima Centauri is a red dwarf, the name for a class of stars that are unusually petite and dim," said Meredith MacGregor, an astrophysicist in the Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
In a campaign carried out over several months, Dr. MacGregor and colleagues observed Proxima Centauri using ground- and space-based telescopes.
They discovered an extreme flaring event on May 1, 2019, with five telescopes that traced its timing and energy in unprecedented detail.
[...] The May 1, 2019 flare lasted just 7 seconds, and is the brightest ever detected in the millimeter and far-ultraviolet wavelengths.
[...] In all, the flare was roughly 100 times more powerful than any similar flare seen from our Sun.
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," Dr. MacGregor said.
Journal Reference:
Discovery of an Extremely Short Duration Flare from Proxima Centauri Using Millimeter through Far-ultraviolet Observations - IOPscience, The Astrophysical Journal Letters (DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/abf14c)
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