Sun-like stars produce superflares roughly once per century

Stellar superflares are energetic outbursts of electromagnetic radiation that are similar to solar flares but release more energy, up to 10<sup>36</sup> erg on main-sequence stars. It is unknown whether the Sun can generate superflares and, if so, how often they might occur. We used photometry from the Kepler space observatory to investigate superflares on other stars with Sun-like fundamental parameters. We identified 2889 superflares on 2527 Sun-like stars, out of 56,450 observed. This detection rate indicates that superflares with energies >10<sup>34</sup> erg occur roughly once per century on stars with Sun-like temperature and variability. The resulting stellar superflare frequency-energy distribution is consistent with an extrapolation of the Sun's flare distribution to higher energies, so we suggest that both are generated by the same physical mechanism.

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Publication Details

Journal
Science
Published
2024-12-12
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adl5441
Citations
27
Primary Topic
Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
8.95

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article

Sun-like stars produce superflares roughly once per century

Ilya Usoskin, Hiroyuki Maehara, A. I. Shapiro, A. S. Brun et al.
27 citations
Science
Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
8.95
article

Sun-like stars produce superflares roughly once per century

Ilya Usoskin, Hiroyuki Maehara, A. I. Shapiro, A. S. Brun, Valeriy Vasilyev, S. K. Solanki, Yuta Notsu, Timo Reinhold, L. Gizon, N. A. Krivova
article en
27 citations

Abstract

Stellar superflares are energetic outbursts of electromagnetic radiation that are similar to solar flares but release more energy, up to 10<sup>36</sup> erg on main-sequence stars. It is unknown whether the Sun can generate superflares and, if so, how often they might occur. We used photometry from the Kepler space observatory to investigate superflares on other stars with Sun-like fundamental parameters. We identified 2889 superflares on 2527 Sun-like stars, out of 56,450 observed. This detection rate indicates that superflares with energies >10<sup>34</sup> erg occur roughly once per century on stars with Sun-like temperature and variability. The resulting stellar superflare frequency-energy distribution is consistent with an extrapolation of the Sun's flare distribution to higher energies, so we suggest that both are generated by the same physical mechanism.

ScienceVol. 386(6727)
University of Graz (AT), University of Colorado Boulder (US), Université Paris Cité (FR), Astrophysique, Instrumentation et Modélisation (FR), National Solar Observatory (US), Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (US), Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (DE), Astronomical Observatory (RS), University of Göttingen (DE), University of Oulu (FI)
National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Space Telescope Science Institute, European Space Agency, Science Mission Directorate
Affordable and clean energy
Openalex Percentile: Top 2%
Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
8.95
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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