stellar flares in the UV

Stellar flares are energetic bursts of radiation caused by rapid realignments of magnetic fields on the surface of a star. These events release energy across the electromagnetic spectrum, from radio waves to X-rays, with significant implications for planetary atmospheres and surface conditions.

Flares in the UV

Ultraviolet (UV) emission from stellar flares plays a crucial role in determining the habitability of exoplanetary systems. Flare UV emission may drive prebiotic chemistry, erode planetary atmospheres, or produce false biosignatures.

What began as an NSF-REU project at the University of Hawaii to search for stellar flares became the most comprehensive statistical analysis of UV flares with simultaneous observations in near- and far-ultraviolet. We showed for the first time that uniformly selected stellar flares are far-ultraviolet luminous, and widely-used assumptions for flare emission significantly underestimate the levels of FUV emission we observe (Berger et al. 2024, MNRAS).

Our work was featured by Space.com, the American Geophysical Union, University of Hawaii and the University of Cambridge.

I’ve also been experimenting with data sonification; here’s a sonified light curve where brightness of the flare is mapped to pitch. This flare displays complex behaviour with multiple peaks in brightness.