Spotting in stars with a low level of activity, cloze to solar activity

TL;DR

This study uses optical emission variability data to estimate starspot levels in Sun-like stars, revealing a gradual increase in spotting from the Sun to highly active stars and a correlation with X-ray emission power.

Contribution

First application of optical variability data to estimate starspot levels in Sun-like stars, establishing a relationship with stellar activity and X-ray emission.

Findings

Spotting increases from the Sun to highly spotted stars.

A correlation exists between starspot levels and X-ray emission power.

Optical variability can be used to estimate starspot activity.

Abstract

Data on the variability of the continuum optical emission are used for the first time to estimate the degree of spotting in stars similar to that of the sun. It is sown that the amount of spotting increases gradually from the sun to the highly spotted stars for which Alekseev and Gershberg constructed the zonal model for the distributions of spots. A close relationship is found between spotting and the power of the x-ray emission from the stars with widely varying levels of activity.