Kepler's "Superflare" Stars Sport Huge, Angry Starspots 25
astroengine writes: Astronomers studying stars like our sun that are known to generate powerful "superflares" have also discovered that these superflares are likely associated with monster "starspots." In 2012, using Kepler Space Telescope data — which is usually associated with the detection of exoplanets as they drift (or transit) in front of their host stars — astronomers were able to identify several hundred superflare events on a number of sun-like stars. These gargantuan events kicked out flares with 10-10,000 times more energy than our sun is able to muster. Keeping in mind that these stars are sun-like stars, what makes them such superflare powerhouses? Why is our sun such a featherweight in comparison? In an effort to understand the dynamics of superflare stars and perhaps answer these questions, astronomers from Kyoto University, University of Hyogo, the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) and Nagoya University turned to the High Dispersion Spectrograph on the Subaru Telescope, located atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii, to carry out spectroscopic measurements of 50 of Kepler's superflare targets. And they found that all the superflare stars possessed huge starspots that completely dwarf our sun's sunspots.
Gettin' old, man (Score:2)
Our sun is middle age
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Indeed, they should not mock our sun for it's small solar flares. It's a medical problem and we do not want it to fix it.
I don't know ... (Score:2)
why the Sun is such a lightweight in this regard but it's a good thing because otherwise we wouldn't be here.
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Not sure if it's a "good" thing for "us" to be here. Mass extinction of species, ongoing wars and killings, the whole refugee situation in the mediterrian sea, human world population growth unmanageable, denial of climate change facts, a US representative claiming the earth being 6k years old.. Bigger sunspots would be just like that, bigger sunspots without all the other nonsense.
another way to wipe out life (Score:5, Interesting)
Somewhere between 4 and 5 billion years from now, the sun will turn into a red giant. Mercury and Venus are toast when that happens. Earth may be engulfed, or it may be pushed to a higher orbit, we're not sure.
We have a bash with the Andromeda Galaxy scheduled in about 4 billion years. Seems the date has been moved up, as both Andromeda and the Milky Way may be larger than thought. That may not do anything to the solar system, everything could miss us. Or, we'll have a close encounter with a massive star and most of the planets, including Earth, will be flung into interstellar space. Or perhaps our entire solar system will be sent out of the galaxy.
But none of that matters, because the sun is slowly getting hotter, and in about 1 billion years will be hot enough to boil away our oceans.
At any time, a nearby supergiant could go supernova, and if a pole is pointed at us, all life dies from the massive quantities of radiation it puts out.
In 15 billion years, the Earth becomes tidally locked to the Moon. Not fatal to all life, but will mess up a lot of species.
At some point, the radioactive material in the Earth finishes decaying and generating heat. Then plate tectonics shuts down, and eventually all our continents erode into the ocean floor. If there is still an ocean when that happens, it will cover the world.
But probably, we'll kill ourselves off long before any of that happens. Fun times.
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I imagined this all voiced like the bear in The Missing Scarf. Jump to 2:39 if you are in a hurry.
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I put the link in there but it apparently got eaten.
https://vimeo.com/107395294 [vimeo.com]
Or I may have put it in forum tags instead of html...
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In 15 billion years, the Earth becomes tidally locked to the Moon. Not fatal to all life, but will mess up a lot of species.
Seeing as the Sun will be a planetary nebula by then, it's probably not so much of a worry. :)
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You set some good deadlines but humanity has an opportunity to transcend these limits.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Type I
"Technological level close to the level presently attained on earth, with energy consumption at 4×1019 erg/sec (4 × 1012 watts)."[1] Guillermo A. Lemarchand stated this as "A level near contemporary terrestrial civilization with an energy capability equivalent to the solar insolation on Earth, between 1016 and 1017 watts."[2]
Type II
"A civilization capable of harnessing the e
Haute spot (Score:1)
Man I haven't seen a monster flare that large since I ate that extra hot Thai food last Friday.
I think I know (Score:3)
Keeping in mind that these stars are sun-like stars, what makes them such superflare powerhouses? Why is our sun such a featherweight in comparison?
It's because our sun is yellah.
Gas & Dust Clouds? (Score:2)
Are these stars passing through relatively dense gas and/or dust clouds? Is it possible that is what is triggering/fueling these events?
If that is the case, is Sol on a path that takes it through similar gas/dust clouds at some point in the future, and if so, how far in the future?
Strat
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Re:Just saying... (Score:4, Informative)
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Angry? (Score:2)
Is it possible the sun can do this sort of thing? (Score:3)
Why are they angry? (Score:2)
The starspots I mean. And if starspots is a word, why does the editor underline it in angry red?