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A very bright, very hot, and very long flaring event from the M Dwarf Binary system DG CVn
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Osten, Rachel A., Kowalski, Adam, Drake, Stephen A., Krimm, Hans, Page, Kim, Gazeas, Kosmas, Kennea, Jamie, Oates, S. R., Page, Mathew, de Miguel, Enrique, Novák, Rudolf, Apeltauer, Tomas and Gehrels, Neil (2016) A very bright, very hot, and very long flaring event from the M Dwarf Binary system DG CVn. The Astrophysical Journal, 832 (2). 174. doi:10.3847/0004-637X/832/2/174 ISSN 0004-637X.
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.3847/0004-637X/832/2/174
Abstract
On 2014 April 23, the Swift satellite responded to a hard X-ray transient detected by its Burst Alert Telescope, which turned out to be a stellar flare from a nearby, young M dwarf binary DG CVn. We utilize observations at X-ray, UV, optical, and radio wavelengths to infer the properties of two large flares. The X-ray spectrum of the primary outburst can be described over the 0.3–100 keV bandpass by either a single very high-temperature plasma or a nonthermal thick-target bremsstrahlung model, and we rule out the nonthermal model based on energetic grounds. The temperatures were the highest seen spectroscopically in a stellar flare, at T X of 290 MK. The first event was followed by a comparably energetic event almost a day later. We constrain the photospheric area involved in each of the two flares to be >1020 cm2, and find evidence from flux ratios in the second event of contributions to the white light flare emission in addition to the usual hot, T ~ 104 K blackbody emission seen in the impulsive phase of flares. The radiated energy in X-rays and white light reveal these events to be the two most energetic X-ray flares observed from an M dwarf, with X-ray radiated energies in the 0.3–10 keV bandpass of 4 × 1035 and 9 × 1035 erg, and optical flare energies at E V of 2.8 × 1034 and 5.2 × 1034 erg, respectively. The results presented here should be integrated into updated modeling of the astrophysical impact of large stellar flares on close-in exoplanetary atmospheres.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||||
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Subjects: | Q Science > QB Astronomy | ||||||||
Divisions: | Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Science > Physics | ||||||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Flare stars, Dwarf stars | ||||||||
Journal or Publication Title: | The Astrophysical Journal | ||||||||
Publisher: | Institute of Physics Publishing, Inc. | ||||||||
ISSN: | 0004-637X | ||||||||
Official Date: | 30 November 2016 | ||||||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | 832 | ||||||||
Number: | 2 | ||||||||
Article Number: | 174 | ||||||||
DOI: | 10.3847/0004-637X/832/2/174 | ||||||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||||||
Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||||||
Date of first compliant deposit: | 12 January 2017 | ||||||||
Date of first compliant Open Access: | 12 January 2017 | ||||||||
Funder: | United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), The Spanish Research Project (SRP) | ||||||||
Grant number: | AYA2012-39727-C03-01 (SRP) | ||||||||
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