An Ultra-Powerful Flare Erupted From Our Nearest Neighbor Star

popularmechanics ^ | Apr 10, 2018 | By John Wenz

[BenLurkin]

Cfredit: Everyscope

[DannyTN]

So that’s why I haven’t heard from my Centauri pen pal in a couple of years.

[DuncanWaring]

” 316,227,766,000 petajoules (316,227 petawatts)”

This makes no sense.

Anyone have any idea what it means?

316,227 petawatts for a million seconds?

[Spirochete]

These types of red dwarf flares normally last only a few minutes. The peak brilliance quoted (x68) probably lasted less than 30 seconds.

[BenLurkin]

I have no idea.

[Snickering Hound]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5600799/Mammoth-solar-flare-Earth-like-exoplanet-Proxima-b-spell-doom-life-star.html

[qam1]

But still more than enough time to fry any life on a planet orbiting it in the habitability zone

[minnesota_bound]

#2 It does not look good for the alien creature pen pal of yours.

[Alas Babylon!]

We’ll need to blow up Proxima Centauri BEFORE we start our colony in that system.

Perhaps by then we’ll have the technology to make useful stuff up out of a blowed-up star?

Man, we’ll need a poop-ton of dynomite!

[outofsalt]

"316,227,766,000 petajoules (316,227 petawatts)” This makes no sense. Anyone have any idea what it means?"

Watts you talkin about, Willis?

A single petawatt is 1,000,000,000,000,000 (a quadrillion) watts. Compared to a blowdryer, or a microwave, at about 1,000 watts. You wouldn't want to get too close.

[Politically Correct]

This is why it’s useless to search for livable planets around red dwarfs.....too many flares that will fry anything in the Goldilocks zone.

[GingisK]

A “MAIN EVENT”, like Kohoutek.

[thulldud]

Gotta figure out what that statement is supposed to be about. Watts and joules don't measure the same thing. Watts are a measurement of power, joules of energy.

Now, watt-SECONDS and joules, those are the same.

316,227,766,000 petajoules != 316,227 petawatt-seconds, though. Not by a long shot.

[Zeppo]

” 316,227,766,000 petajoules (316,227 petawatts)” This makes no sense. Anyone have any idea what it means? 316,227 petawatts for a million seconds?

Yeah, something does not compute.

A joule is a watt-second.

You can not convert between joules and watts (peta or not) unless there is some unstated time factor involved.

[outofsalt]

You at correct. Apparently, my Newton Meter was turned off.

[Dalberg-Acton]

Old news. Happened four years ago! ;^)

[DoodleBob]

[Spirochete]

But still more than enough time to fry any life on a planet orbiting it in the habitability zone

These sorts of flares are much hotter that the photosphere - around 10,000 to 20,000 kelvin, hence they (briefly) produce large amounts of UV. Enough to stimulate the production of an ozone layer in an oxygen rich atmosphere.

[Fred Hayek]

By comparison, the photosphere for a red dwarf is somewhere around the 2500-3200 Kelvin range. Energy radiated per unit area is proportional to the temperature to the fourth power, according to the Stefan-Boltzmann equation.

[Moonman62]

How would the oxygen get there?