If superflares are similar to celestial rage, our Sun may be angry more often than previously thought. report in the journal science. Superflares, defined as solar storms that release more than a billion joules of energy in a short period of time, appear in the data as brief, distinct peaks of brightness.
Understanding the regularity of superflares can be useful because of their potential harm. For example, a violent solar storm in 1859 knocked out telegraph networks in parts of Europe and North America. The Carrington event was one of the most powerful solar storms in the past 200 years, but the energy released was only one-hundredth of the energy of a superflare.
If these events occur hundreds of years apart, how can scientists measure their frequency?
“We won’t be able to observe the Sun for thousands of years,” said astronomer Sami Solanki. Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) and co-authors of the paper said in a press release: “But we can monitor the behavior of thousands of stars very similar to the Sun over a short period of time. “This helps us estimate how often superflares occur.”
Learn about solar storms
The team monitored data from NASA. kepler space telescope From 2009 to 2013, it included 56,450 Sun-like stars. This means that only stars with surface temperatures and brightness similar to those of the Sun were observed.
They also ruled out potential sources of error such as cosmic radiation, passing asteroids or comets. The team detected 2,889 superflares from 2,527 stars. That’s an average of one superflare per 100 years.
“We were very surprised that stars like the Sun are so prone to superflares so frequently,” MPS co-author Valeriy Vasilyev said in a press release.
Previous studies by other groups have concluded that superflares occur every 1,000 or even 10,000 years. But that study examined a more limited number of stars.
Read more: Our sun can produce dangerous ‘superflares’, a new study suggests.
Will there be fewer solar storms affecting Earth?
However, the physical evidence for superflares affecting Earth shows gaps larger than the average calculated by this study. Violent solar storms that impact Earth leave behind traces of various radioactive atoms. These atoms are stored in tree rings and glacial ice. Scientists can detect these atoms even thousands of years after their introduction.
Using this method, researchers identified five extreme solar particle events and three candidates over the past 12,000 years. This occurred on average once every 1,500 years, with the most violent event occurring in 775 AD.
However, not all superflares emit the same type and amount of radioactive particles. If so, the number of events affecting the Earth may be underestimated. And whatever their frequency, superflares are difficult to predict. New space-based instruments are being developed to help predict these solar storms.
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Before joining Discover Magazine, Paul Smaglik was a science journalist for more than 20 years, specializing in U.S. life sciences policy and global science career issues. He started his career in newspapers but switched to science magazines. His research has been published in publications such as Science News, Science, Nature, and Scientific American.
