Sun-like stars produce superflares roughly once per century

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Vasilyev, Valeriy; Reinhold, Timo; Shapiro, Alexander I.; Usoskin, Ilya; Krivova, Natalie A.; Maehara, Hiroyuki; Notsu, Yuta; Brun, Allan Sacha; Solanki, Sami K.; Gizon, Laurent
• 署名单位: Max Planck Society; University of Graz; University of Oulu; University of Oulu; National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS) - Japan; National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ); University of Colorado System; University of Colorado Boulder; National Solar Observatory; CEA; Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS); Universite Paris Cite; University of Gottingen
• 刊物名称: SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0036-8125
• DOI: 10.1126/science.adl5441
• 发表日期: 2024-12-01
• 页码: 1301-1305
• 关键词: frequency-distributions; error-correction; solar; variability; catalog

摘要

Stellar superflares are energetic outbursts of electromagnetic radiation that are similar to solar flares but release more energy, up to 10(36) 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(34) 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.