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Gigantic flare from sun鈥檚 nearest neighbor breaks records

Gigantic flare from sun鈥檚 nearest neighbor breaks records

Solar flare. Photo by NRAO/S. Dagnello.

Now, that鈥檚 one big cosmic explosion.

A research team led by Meredith MacGregor, assistant professor at the Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy (CASA), has observed the largest flare ever recorded from the sun鈥檚 nearest neighbor: the star Proxima Centauri.

Proxima Centauri is a 鈥渞ed dwarf鈥 star that sits just four light-years from Earth. And on May 1, 2019, researchers saw it erupt in a record-setting explosion using a suite of five instruments in space and on the ground.

鈥淭he star went from normal to 14,000 times brighter when seen in ultraviolet wavelengths over the span of a few seconds,鈥 MacGregor said.

She added that such flares from Proxima Centauri might be more common than scientists think鈥攂ad news for any nearby lifeforms.

Principal investigator
Meredith MacGregor

Funding
National Science Foundation (NSF); NASA

Collaboration + support
Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy; Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences; Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP); National Solar Observatory