Record Flares from Proxima Centauri

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Text, News From The Universe. May 11, 2021
 
Record Flares from Proxima Centauri
 
Using a suite of telescopes, astronomers measured the strongest stellar flare ever from Proxima Centauri, the closest star to our solar system.
 
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The flare briefly made the red dwarf star 14,000 times brighter than normal, in ultraviolet light.
 
NASA's Hubble and TESS space telescopes were among the observatories to study the flares across many wavelengths of light, a first.

Many red dwarf stars, including Proxima Centauri, have orbiting rocky planets...
 
But their frequent strong flares erode atmospheres, making them unlikely places to find life as we know it.
 
This news was brought to you in part by the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore MD.