BY JAKE *********, PH.D. * | FRIDAY, MARCH 16, 2018

Astronomers recently detected an enormous but short-lived increase in radiation from the nearby star Proxima Centauri.1,2 This radiation burst, known as a flare, caused the star to become a thousand times brighter for ten seconds. Our sun also has flares, but those flares are much smaller. At the time of its peak brightness, the Proxima Centauri flare was ten times brighter (in the measured wavelengths) than even the largest flares emitted by our sun. This is another reminder of how our sun is especially designed for life on Earth.

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