NASA | Swift Catches Mega Flares from a Mini Star

On April 23, NASA's Swift satellite detected the strongest, hottest, and longest-lasting sequence of stellar flares ever seen from a nearby red dwarf star. The initial blast from this record-setting series of explosions was as much as 10,000 times more powerful than the largest solar flare ever recorded.

At its peak, the flare reached temperatures of 360 million degrees Fahrenheit (200 million Celsius), more than 12 times hotter than the center of the sun.

The "superflare" came from one of the stars in 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 about one-third of our sun's. They orbit each other at about three times Earth's average distance from the sun, which is too close for Swift to determine which star erupted.

At 5:07 p.m. EDT on April 23, the rising tide of X-rays from DG CVn's superflare triggered Swift's Burst Alert Telescope (BAT). Swift turned to observe the source in greater detail with other instruments and, at the same time, notified astronomers around the globe that a powerful outburst was in progress.

For about three minutes after the BAT trigger, the superflare's X-ray brightness was greater than the combined luminosity of both stars at all wavelengths under normal conditions.

The largest solar explosions are classified as extraordinary, or X class, solar flares based on their X-ray emission. The biggest flare ever seen from the sun occurred in November 2003 and is rated as X 45. But if the flare on DG CVn were viewed from a planet the same distance as Earth is from the sun and measured the same way, it would have been ranked 10,000 times greater, at about X 100,000.

How can a star just a third the size of the sun produce such a giant eruption? The key factor is its rapid spin, a crucial ingredient for amplifying magnetic fields. The flaring star in DG CVn rotates in under a day, about 30 or more times faster than our sun. The sun also rotated much faster in its youth and may well have produced superflares of its own, but, fortunately for us, it no longer appears capable of doing so.

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[Master_Therion]

That little star has a flair for flares. 

[doodelay]

You guys did a great job putting the sizes of other flares into context before telling us the size of this particular flare

[alienunderground]

"You'd be having a very bad day."  Well, that's what she said.

[JoseGarcia-vhco]

more fast rotation more activity, but what about the gravitational force that use only mass? something is missing in the gravitational force theory equation

[marywilbur]

The commentary to this video explains more about the importance of X-class flares than the video I posted a few minutes ago re "Five X-class Flares" from the sun in late October.

[nandakumarcheiro]

Small star sending fire flares very interesting by resonance .

[ДушанНемањић-пн]

How skillfully preparing the ground. bravo

[LordTeaOfBiscuits]

Holy shit, I didn't even think such a powerful flare was possible :O

[LuciFrederiksen]

What i am so interested to hear/see if there were any CME combined with those flares, but probably the satellite is not set up to observe such things to near by stars 

[JoseGarcia-vhco]

what about of the density, how much mass our sun lost on each solar flare?

[Ferinthalas]

The star was not even in the watch list yet scientists explain "after the event" that it was rational to have a fast spinning sun to have so much magnetic activity. I don't even. We as common people expect some kind of explanation and comment on that. Does that mean our models were flawed or the observational data was short on some part of some theory or was it just some lack of proper attention? Should this discrepancy make us feel safe about our sun that when non-listed fast-spinning star can unexpectedly erupt but our old and settled sun can never do anything surprising, or else? What might be a solution to such an eruption assuming that it happens on our sun, how can we protect our equipment or can we? A commentary on this might be useful, I do not feel satisfied about the explanation here.

[omatumr]

Thank you for letting the public see life's harsh realities on a planet orbiting a pulsar.

[amberkelly]

So what I understand is that this is the fabled planet x (a dwarf star that is surrounded by planets in the habitable zone ) and isn't that far away. What is this stars orbit to our solar system ? How Many planets are there ?

[cliffproctor]

Hi.  Does anyone know who the music is by ? It's pretty cool 

[janneaalto]

A very bad day. How much is that in sieverts?

[flamesofmordor]

That number literally made me drop my jaw!

[labradogs]

Our Star is a good Star. Thank Goodness.

[AnthonyAnzer]

The universe will never cease to amaze me.

[impreza]

Really, second video I watch from this channel and both lie about what is a threat or not.
You wrote..

"The "superflare" came from one of the stars in 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 about one-third of our sun's. They orbit each other at about three times Earth's average distance from the sun, which is too close for Swift to determine which star erupted.

At 5:07 p.m. EDT on April 23, the rising tide of X-rays from DG CVn's superflare triggered Swift's Burst Alert Telescope (BAT). Swift turned to observe the source in greater detail with other instruments and, at the same time, notified astronomers around the globe that a powerful outburst was in progress.

For about three minutes after the BAT trigger, the superflare's X-ray brightness was greater than the combined luminosity of both stars at all wavelengths under normal conditions."

...in the description, instead of lying why not just say, Its very unlucky to ever effect us or make up some numbers like 1/1million odds.
I like that lie better.

[suquip]

I would like to see the dangerous blue star.