Sun-like stars produce superflares roughly once per century

TL;DR

This study analyzes Kepler data to estimate that Sun-like stars produce superflares roughly once per century, suggesting the Sun could potentially generate such energetic events through the same mechanisms.

Contribution

The paper provides the first large-scale statistical estimate of superflare frequency on Sun-like stars, linking stellar superflares to solar flares through a common physical process.

Findings

Superflares >10^{34} erg occur about once per century on Sun-like stars.

The superflare energy distribution aligns with an extrapolation of solar flare distributions.

Sun-like stars can produce superflares with energies up to 10^{36} erg.

Abstract

Stellar superflares are energetic outbursts of electromagnetic radiation, similar to solar flares but releasing more energy, up to $10^{36}$ erg on main sequence stars. It is unknown whether the Sun can generate superflares, and if so, how often they might occur. We used photometry from the Kepler space observatory to investigate superflares on other stars with Sun-like fundamental parameters. We identified 2889 superflares on 2527 Sun-like stars, out of 56450 observed. This detection rate indicates that superflares with energies $>10^{34}$ erg occur roughly once per century on stars with Sun-like temperature and variability. The resulting stellar superflare frequency-energy distribution is consistent with an extrapolation of the Sun's flare distribution to higher energies, so we suggest that both are generated by the same physical mechanism.