1. A Dragon's Flame of Many Colours: Multi-wavelength Observations of Flares from the Active M Binary CR Draconis
- Author
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Jackman, James A. G., Shkolnik, Evgenya L., Loyd, R. O. Parke, Richey-Yowell, Tyler, Llama, Joe, Boyd, David, Buchheim, Bob, Iadevaia, David, Martin, Jack, Sims, Forrest, Walker, Gary, and Wetmore, John
- Subjects
Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics - Abstract
We present the results of a multi-wavelength Pro-Am campaign to study the behaviour of flares from the active M1.5V star binary CR Draconis. CR Dra was observed with TESS 20-s photometry, Swift near-UV (NUV) grism spectroscopy and with ground-based optical photometry and spectroscopy from a global collaboration of amateur astronomers. We detected 14 flares with TESS and Swift simultaneously, one of which also had simultaneous ground-based photometry and spectroscopy. We used the simultaneous two-colour optical and NUV observations to characterise the temperature evolution of the flare and test the accuracy of using optical data to predict NUV emission. We measured a peak temperature of $7100^{+150}_{-130}$ K for this flare, cooler than the typically assumed 9000 K blackbody model used by flare studies. We also found that the 9000 K blackbody overestimated the NUV flux for other flares in our sample, which we attributed to our Swift observations occurring during flare decays, highlighting the phase-dependence for the accuracy of flare models., Comment: Accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Published
- 2024