University of Warwick | 2015 Dec 02
[c][attachment=0]sun_ab[1].jpg[/attachment][/c][hr][/hr]The Sun demonstrates the potential to superflare, new research into stellar flaring suggests.
Led by the University of Warwick, the research has found a stellar superflare on a star observed by NASA’s Kepler space telescope with wave patterns similar to those that have been observed in solar flares.
Superflares are thousands of times more powerful than those ever recorded on the Sun, and are frequently observed on some stars.
Found in the Milky Way, the binary star, KIC9655129, is known to superflare. The researchers suggest due to the similarities between the superflare on KIC9655129 and the Sun’s solar flares, the underlying physics of the flares might be the same, supporting the idea that our Sun could also produce a superflare.
Typical solar flares can have energies equivalent to a 100 million megaton bombs, but a superflare on the Sun could release energy equivalent to a 100 billion megaton bombs.
If the Sun were to superflare the Earth’s communications and energy systems could be at serious risk of failing. ...
A Multi-Period Oscillation in a Stellar Superflare - Chloe E. Pugh, Valery M. Nakariakov, Anne-Marie Broomhall
- Astrophysical Journal Letters 813(1):L5 (2015 Nov 01) DOI: 10.1088/2041-8205/813/1/L5
arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:1510.03613 > 13 Oct 2015