1. Discovery of an Extremely Short Duration Flare from Proxima Centauri Using Millimeter through Far-ultraviolet Observations
- Author
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Meredith A. MacGregor, Ward S. Howard, R. O. Parke Loyd, Adam F. Kowalski, Jaymie M. Matthews, Thomas Barclay, Alycia J. Weinberger, Tara Murphy, Emil Lenc, Steven R. Cranmer, Allison Youngblood, A. C. Boley, A. G. Hughes, Anna Estes, Jan Forbrich, R. A. Osten, Andrew Zic, Nicholas M. Law, Evgenya L. Shkolnik, and David J. Wilner
- Subjects
010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences ,Astrophysics::High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena ,Far ultraviolet ,FOS: Physical sciences ,Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics ,01 natural sciences ,Submillimetre astronomy ,law.invention ,law ,Ultraviolet astronomy ,0103 physical sciences ,Astrophysics::Solar and Stellar Astrophysics ,010303 astronomy & astrophysics ,Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR) ,Astrophysics::Galaxy Astrophysics ,0105 earth and related environmental sciences ,Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP) ,Physics ,Planetary habitability ,Astronomy ,Astronomy and Astrophysics ,Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics ,13. Climate action ,Space and Planetary Science ,Stellar physics ,Millimeter ,Astrophysics::Earth and Planetary Astrophysics ,Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics ,Flare ,Radio astronomy - Abstract
We present the discovery of an extreme flaring event from Proxima Cen by ASKAP, ALMA, HST, 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 >14000 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, 11 pages, 4 figures, 1 appendix, published in ApJ Letters
- Published
- 2021