Astronomers studying the star EK Draconis recently observed it undergo a massive flare and emit a massive filament of plasma. The outburst was ten times larger than anything we’ve seen our Sun eject, and it was moving at a zippy 500 km/s.

While massive flares are nothing new, especially for young red dwarf stars, this particular flare was of note because EK Draconis is a Sun-like star. It’s much younger than the Sun but is similar in mass. This leads to the uncomfortable realization that our Sun, when it was young, probably also had these occasional superflares.

Superflares that could be very bad for planets like Earth.

These results appear in Nature Astronomy and are published with lead author Kosuke Namekata. While our modern Sun shouldn’t still be capable of these kinds of wild outbursts, I have to admit that the part of my brain that is aware the Universe is more creative than we are holds onto a small amount of worry. Luckily, we have spacecraft between us and the Sun that can alert us if any plasma lashes are headed our way, which they shouldn’t be.

More Information

NAOJ press release

“Probable detection of an eruptive filament from a superflare on a solar-type star,” Kosuke Namekata et al., 2021 December 9, Nature Astronomy