Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Astrophysics

Startling superflares

Nature volume 485, pages 456–457 (2012)Cite this article

Subjects

Stars that are just like our Sun have flares more than a million times more energetic than the biggest flare ever seen on the Sun. The Kepler satellite has allowed these superflares to be studied in detail for the first time. See Letter p.478

A superflare on a Sun-like star is a brightening that has an energy of from 1033 to more than 1039 erg and lasts from minutes to days. The Sun has frequent flares that are caused by magnetic effects above sunspots, regions that are cooler than the Sun's typical surface temperature. However, the largest flare ever observed1 on the Sun — the 1859 Carrington event — had a total energy of about 1032 erg. With Sun-like stars being the epitome of constancy, it is startling, evocative and exciting that they can have superflares as energetic as 1039 erg. On page 478 of this issue, Maehara et al.2 report the emissions from 365 superflares, measured by the awesome Kepler satellite, which was launched in 2009.Footnote 1

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Get just this article for as long as you need it

$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Magnetic connection.

Notes

  1. *This article and the paper2 under discussion were published online on 16 May 2012.

References

  1. Tsurutani, B. T., Gonzalez, W. D., Lakhina, G. S. & Alex, S. J. Geophys. Res. 108, 1268 (2003).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Maehara, H. et al. Nature http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature11063 (2012).

  3. Schaefer, B. E. Astrophys. J. 337, 927–933 (1989).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  4. Schaefer, B. E. Astrophys. J. 366, L39–L42 (1991).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  5. Schaefer, B. E., King, J. R. & Deliyannis, C. P. Astrophys. J. 529, 1026–1030 (2000).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  6. Rubenstein, E. P. & Schaefer, B. E. Astrophys. J. 529, 1031–1033 (2000).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  7. Cuntz, M., Saar, S. H. & Musielak, Z. E. Astrophys. J. 533, L151–L154 (2000).

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

  8. Ip, W.-H., Kopp, A. & Hu, J.-H. Astrophys. J. 602, L53–L56 (2004).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  9. Lanza, A. F. Astron. Astrophys. 487, 1163–1170 (2008).

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

  10. www.zooniverse.org

  11. Shea, M. A., Smart, D. F., McCracken, K. G., Dreschhoff, G. A. M. & Spence, H. E. Adv. Space Res. 38, 232–238 (2006).

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bradley E. Schaefer is in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803, USA.,

    Bradley E. Schaefer

Authors
  1. Bradley E. Schaefer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Bradley E. Schaefer.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Schaefer, B. Startling superflares. Nature 485, 456–457 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11194

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11194

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing