Effects of flares on the habitable zones of M dwarfs accessible to TESS planet detections

TL;DR

This study analyzes TESS data of 112 M dwarfs to assess flare activity and its potential impact on habitability, finding that most stars exhibit moderate flares unlikely to cause ozone depletion or aid RNA formation.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of flare energies and frequencies on M dwarfs within TESS habitable zones, evaluating their effects on planetary atmospheres.

Findings

32% of stars showed flare activity

Flares can increase flux up to 4.5 times solar flux at 1 au

No highly energetic flares likely to deplete ozone or promote RNA formation

Abstract

Photometric space missions like Kepler and TESS continuously discover new exoplanets and advance the search for a second habitable world. The light curves recorded by these telescopes also reveal signs of magnetic activity, such as star spot modulation and flares, which can influence habitability. Searching for these characteristics, we analyzed TESS light curves of 112 M dwarfs selected according to the criterion that TESS can spot planet transits over their entire habitable zone (HZ). We detected 2532 flare events, occurring on 35 stars, thus the flare incidence rate is $\approx32\%$. For only $\approx11\%$ of our stars, we found rotation periods. We calculated bolometric flare energies and luminosities, flare energy frequency distributions (FFDs) and the bolometric flux reaching the HZ at the peak of the flare. We estimated the effects of flaring on the atmosphere of an Earth-like planet in the HZ in the view of both ozone depletion and the enabling of chemical reactions necessary to build ribonucleic acid (RNA). None of our targets exhibits highly energetic flares at a frequency large enough to trigger ozone depletion or RNA formation. The flux reaching the inner HZ edge during flare events goes up to $\approx 4.5$ times the quiescent solar flux at 1\,au.