Astronomers detect a stellar flare 10 billion times brighter than our Sun's solar flares

Occasionally our sun spits out some solar flares which are huge outbursts of energy, and is common among stars. However, the ones from our sun are nothing when compared to some other stars, particularly the turbulent young stars.

Astronomers detected stellar flare from a star JW 566, that erupted in November 2016 and was 10 billion times as luminous as any solar flare erupted from our sun. This was a young star 389 parsecs (1,269 light years) away from earth situated in the Orion Nebula.

According to a paper published by the researchers in The Astrophysical Journal, the event is perhaps the most luminous known flare associated with a young star, and is also the first coronal flare ever discovered at submillimeter wavelengths.

JW 566 is a young variable T Tauri star - the one whose luminosity varies over time. It is just 10 million years old and is going through a period of sudden and violent growth, before it becomes large enough to produce hydrogen fusion as fuel in its core.
The stellar flare was extremely short-lived, bursting and dissipating in matter of hours. 

However, the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope at the Mauna Kea Observatory in Hawaii was able to capture the flare. The telescope has an instrument called SCUBA-2, which is a 10,000 pixel bolometer camera. This instrument is supercooled to absolute zero temperature (-273 degree Celsius), and is extremely sensitive to submillimeter wavelengths.

Astronomer Steve Mairs of East Asian Observatory said, "Using the JCMT, we study the birth of nearby stars as a means to understand the history of our very own solar system. Observing flares around the youngest stars is new territory and it is giving us key insights into the physical conditions of these systems. This is one of the ways we are working towards answering people's most enduring questions about space, time and universe that surrounds us."

Researchers believe that this young star is actively accreting matter from the dust cloud surrounding it. And the flare was caused by a disruption in its magnetic field that is funneling matter into the star. The reconnection of the magnetic field briefly energizes the non-thermal particles and this appear as a stellar flare. A giant flare like this one can help us understand the dynamics of this magnetic disruption and reconnection.

The team will continue to monitor the star as a part of the JCMT Transient Survey, in hopes to catching it in the act of another such event.