Time-resolved UVES observations of a stellar flare on the planet host HD 189733 during primary transit

TL;DR

This study uses high-resolution UVES spectra to analyze a stellar flare on HD 189733 during transit, revealing detailed temporal evolution of chromospheric lines and estimating the flare's energy and impact on exoplanet atmosphere detection.

Contribution

First detailed time-resolved spectroscopic analysis of a stellar flare on an exoplanet host star during transit, linking chromospheric activity to flare energetics and implications for exoplanet studies.

Findings

Flare energy estimated at 8.7e31 erg, among the highest for solar-like stars.

No significant delay observed between Balmer and Ca II H&K line peaks.

Flare activity may influence exoplanet atmosphere detection methods.

Abstract

HD 189733 is an exoplanetary system consisting of a transiting hot Jupiter and an active K2V-type main sequence star. We aim to use VLT/UVES high resolution echelle spectra to study a stellar flare. We have performed simultaneous analyses of the temporal evolution in several chromospheric stellar lines, namely, the Ca II H and K lines, Halpha, Hbeta, Hgamma, Hdelta, Hepsilon, the Ca II infrared triplet line, and He I D3. Observations were carried out with a time resolution of approximately 1 min for a duration of four hours, including a complete planetary transit. We determine the energy released during the flare in all studied chromospheric lines combined to be about 8.7e31 erg, which puts this event at the upper end of flare energies observed on the Sun. Our analysis does not reveal any significant delay of the flare peak observed in the Balmer and Ca II H and K lines, although we find a clear difference in the temporal evolution of these lines. The He I D3 shows additional absorption possibly related to the flare event. Based on the flux released in Ca II H and K lines during the flare, we estimate the soft X-ray flux emission to be 7e30 erg. The observed flare can be ranked as a moderate flare on a K-type star and confirms a rather high activity level of HD 189733 host star. The cores of the studied chromospheric lines demonstrate the same behavior and let us study the flare evolution. We demonstrate that the activity of an exoplanet host star can play an important role in the detection of exoplanet atmospheres, since these are frequently discovered as an additional absorption in the line cores. A possible star-planet interaction responsible for a flare occurrence during a transit can neither be confirmed nor ruled out.