A young star 400 light-years away from the Sun suddenly belched out a strong flare. Astronomers are doing more observations to find out why.
Artist's concept of the flare that burst out from the young nearby star HD 283572. The flare was detected by the Submillimeter Array on Mauna Kea, in Hawai'i. Credit: CfA/Melissa Weiss.
Lovell and his team targeted the star, called HD 283572, in a search for circumstellar dust. It’s fairly young—about the same age the Sun was when our planets were first forming. It lies some 400 light-years away and is roughly 40 percent more massive than our star. During the outburst, it brightened up by about a factor of a hundred over 9 hours. The flare released about a million times more energy than any millimeter flares seen on any stars near the Sun.
Lovell and his team continued to observe the star using the submillimeter array on Mauna Kea in Hawai’i for several months. The hoped to see it flare again, but it remained quiet. “Our findings confirm that these flare events are rare at millimeter wavelengths, but that these can be extremely powerful for stars at this young age,” he said.
So far, the team has only caught one flare at HD 283572. That makes it pretty tough to figure out exactly why it burst out so fiercely. “It’s a real puzzle and there are a range of mechanisms that could be at play. Interactions with unseen companion stars or planets, or periodic starspot activity are two possibilities, but what remains beyond doubt is how powerful an event this was,” said team member Garrett Keating.
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