youtu.be/YtrUyJYSwt0 Published in 9/30/2014 NASA | Swift catches Mega Flares of a Red dwarf star In April 23, NASAs Swift satellite detected the following stronger, warmer, and more long-lasting stellar eruptions ever seen of a red dwarf star next. The initial blast of this record series of explosions was up to 10,000 times more powerful than the largest solar flare ever recorded. At its peak, the fire reached temperatures of 360 million degrees Fahrenheit (200 million degrees Celsius), more than 12 times hotter than the center of the Sun, the superflare came from one of the stars of a close binary system known as DG Canum Venaticorum, or DG CVn for short, located about 60 light years away. Both stars are Dim red dwarfs with masses and sizes of about one-third of our Sun. They orbit at around three times the average distance from the Earth to the Sun, which is very close to Swift to determine which star erupted. At EDT April 23 05:07, the rising tide of x-rays of DG superflare CVn triggered the burst Alert telescope (BAT) Swift. Swift turned to observe the source in greater detail with other instruments and, at the same time, notified astronomers around the world it was a powerful explosion in progress. For about three minutes after the trigger MTD, the x-ray brightness of the superflare was greater than the combined brightness of both stars in all wavelengths, under normal conditions. The largest flares are classified as extraordinary, or X class solar flares, based on their x-ray emission. The largest outbreak ever seen the Sun occurred in November 2003 and is classified as X 45 But, if the enlargement DG CVn were seen from a planet at the same distance as the Earth is from the Sun and measured in the same way, would have been classified 10,000 times higher, at around 100.000 X. How can a star only one third the size of the Sun produce a rash such giant? The key factor is its rapid rotation, a crucial ingredient to amplify magnetic fields. The star burns in DG CVn revolves less than a day, about 30 times faster than our Sun, the Sun also rotated much faster in his youth and may well have produced superflares themselves, but, fortunately for us, no longer seems able to do it.
Posted on: Tue, 30 Sep 2014 21:23:14 +0000
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