An artist’s rendering depicts a Sun-like star emitting a powerful superflare, visible in optical light. Credit: MPS/Alexey Chizhik

Figure 1. Astronomers Explore the Potential for Catastrophic Superflares from the Sun.

Superflares are intense and explosive solar events that unleash vast amounts of energy—far exceeding the largest solar flares ever observed from the Sun—in just a short period. Figure 1 shows Astronomers Explore the Potential for Catastrophic Superflares from the Sun

Scientists are investigating whether our Sun has the potential to produce superflares and, if so, how frequently they might occur.

Intriguing and somewhat alarming new research reveals that stars similar to the Sun elsewhere in the universe experience superflares approximately once every 100 years.

“We cannot directly observe the Sun over thousands of years,” explains Sami Solanki, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research and co-author of a study recently published in science.“However, by monitoring the behavior of thousands of Sun-like stars over shorter timeframes, we can estimate how often superflares might occur.”

Solanki and his team analyzed data on stellar brightness collected by the Kepler space telescope between 2009 and 2013. The study focused on stars with surface temperatures and brightness similar to the Sun. “The Kepler data collectively represent around 220,000 years of stellar activity,” notes co-author Alexander Shapiro from the University of Graz, Austria.

Their analysis identified 2,889 superflares on 2,527 Sun-like stars out of 56,450 observed. These stars generated superflares approximately once every century, with energy levels described as “…an order of magnitude greater than any solar flare recorded during the space age.”

One intriguing idea proposes that a cosmic era preceding the Big Bang led to a new paradigm of physics, effectively replacing the singularity.

Solar flares are often associated with coronal mass ejections (CMEs), which expel vast amounts of plasma from the Sun and accelerate charged particles to high energies. These particles, known as solar energetic particles (SEPs), can create radioactive isotopes like carbon-14 when they interact with Earth’s atmosphere.

Evidence from natural archives, such as tree rings and glacial ice, reveals five confirmed (and three candidate) extreme SEP events in the past 12,000 years—equivalent to roughly one event every 1,500 years.

However, it’s possible that the Sun experienced even more superflares and extreme particle events in its history.

“It remains uncertain whether all large flares are accompanied by coronal mass ejections or how superflares are connected to extreme solar particle events,” explains co-author Ilya Usoskin from the University of Oulu in Finland.

If a superflare were to occur today, it could severely disrupt Earth’s infrastructure, particularly satellites. Still, the researchers caution that the flaring stars observed by Kepler may not perfectly represent the Sun.

“We cannot rule out the possibility that there are intrinsic differences between flaring and non-flaring stars that were not accounted for in our selection criteria,” the authors conclude.

Source: COSMOS

Cite this article:

Priyadharshini S (2024), Astronomers Investigate the Possibility of Catastrophic Super flares from The Sun,AnaTechmaz, pp. 144