KyotoU’s new Seimei telescope detects enormous ‘superflare’ on nearby star.

Fortunately, the ways in which we can peer into the mists of the void are increasing, and now include Kyoto University’s 3.8 meter Seimei telescope.

Using this new instrument — located on a hilltop in Okayama to the west of Kyoto — astronomers from Kyoto University’s Graduate School of Science and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan have succeeded in detecting 12 stellar flare phenomena on AD Leonis, a red dwarf 16 light years away.

Writing in the Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan, the team reports on a long week of setting the sights of Seimei — along with other observational facilities — to AD Leonis.

Observing the stellar flares on AD Leonis 16 light years away.

The team also observed flares where light from excited hydrogen atoms increased, but did not correspond with an increase in brightness across of the rest of the visible spectrum.

“This was new for us as well, because typical flare studies have observed the continuum of the light spectrum — the broad range of wavelengths — rather than energy coming from specific atoms,” continues Namekata.

“We may even be able to begin understanding how these emissions can affect the existence — or emergence — of life on other planets.”.

Reference: “Optical and X-ray observations of stellar flares on an active M dwarf AD Leonis with the Seimei Telescope, SCAT, NICER, and OISTER” by Kosuke Namekata, Hiroyuki Maehara, Ryo Sasaki, Hiroki Kawai, Yuta Notsu, Adam F Kowalski, Joel C Allred, Wataru Iwakiri, Yohko Tsuboi, Katsuhiro L Murata, Masafumi Niwano, Kazuki Shiraishi, Ryo Adachi, Kota Iida, Motoki Oeda, Satoshi Honda, Miyako Tozuka, Noriyuki Katoh, Hiroki Onozato, Soshi Okamoto, Keisuke Isogai, Mariko Kimura, Naoto Kojiguchi, Yasuyuki Wakamatsu, Yusuke Tampo, Daisaku Nogami and Kazunari Shibata, 9 July 2020, Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan

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