Abstract
We present the discovery of an extreme flaring event from Proxima Cen by the Australian Square Kilometre Array
Pathfinder (ASKAP), Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), Hubble Space Telescope (HST),
Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), and the du Pont Telescope that occurred on 2019 May 1. In the
millimeter and FUV, this flare is the brightest ever detected, brightening by a factor of >1000 and >14,000 as seen
by ALMA and HST, respectively. The millimeter and FUV continuum emission trace each other closely during the
flare, suggesting that millimeter emission could serve as a proxy for FUV emission from stellar flares and become a
powerful new tool to constrain the high-energy radiation environment of exoplanets. Surprisingly, optical emission
associated with the event peaks at a much lower level with a time delay. The initial burst has an extremely short
duration, lasting for <10 s. Taken together with the growing sample of millimeter M dwarf flares, this event
suggests that millimeter emission is actually common during stellar flares and often originates from short burst-like
events.
Original language | English |
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Article number | L25 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | Astrophysical Journal Letters |
Volume | 911 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 21 Apr 2021 |
Keywords
- astro-ph.SR
- astro-ph.EP