As part of a search of planets beyond the solar system especially habitable world, three space-based observatories Astrosat, Chandra, Hubble Space Telescope and a ground-based observatory HARPS simultaneously detected a massive coronal explosion on the nearest planet-hosting star “Proxima Centauri”, during a recent observation campaign.
Monitored by three leading space-based observatories and a ground-based observatory High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS), a team of scientists from Germany, India, US, Chile, and France participated in a multi-wavelength observational campaign of Proxima Centauri system on May 31.
“During the observations, a strong flare was observed by all our space-based participating telescopes” Dr Christian Schneider of Hubble Space(HS), Germany, one of the team members, said.
At 4.2 light years away Proxima Centauri is the nearest star to the sun, but as it is so small and dim it cannot be viewed with the naked eye. It is one such star with a spectral type M5.5 and hosting an Earth-like planet, Proxima Centauri b, orbiting within its habitable zone.
Proxima Centauri is a well-known flaring star where a large amount of energy is released as a result of magnetic reconnection. Stars like Proxima Centauri are known to flare on timescales of few minutes to hours. However, the habitability of the planet depends on the high-energy radiation as a result of the chromospheric and coronal activity of the host star.
“The analysis of the observed flare data suggests that the flux increases to several orders of magnitude in both X-rays and UV wavelengths and lasting ~1800s. The energy released during this flare is of the order of ~1030 erg, “scientist from Indian Institute of Astrophysics IIA, Bengaluru, lalitha Sairam said.
The team of scientists from five countries, which is investigating the fate of Earthlike planet Proxima Centauri b, is now studying the characteristics of this flaring event to understand the propagation of such energetic events and effects on the orbiting planetary world. “Such powerful and frequent flaring events may produce large radiations and particles which may significantly influence the atmosphere of the Proxima Centauri b and affect its habitability,” Prof. Jürgen Schmitt (HS, Germany) said.
“For first time Astrosat is part of such a large observing campaign with other space-based observatories like Chandra and Hubble,“ Prof. K. P. Singh of Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR, Mumbai), who developed the Soft X-ray Telescope aboard AstroSat, said in a joint statement here on Wednesday.
“If a flare like the one observed on Proxima Centauri occurs on our Sun, it might have a devastating effect on power-grid, interruption of broadcast and electricity, affects the electronic instruments as well as astronauts in space, excess UV radiation in space, additionally also atmospheric display of lights near the poles” Prof. Singh said.
“The low Energy Transmission Grating Spectrometer (lETGS) onboard Chandra is perfectly suited to measure the coronal properties of stars”, lETGS’ Principal Investigator Peter Predehl said.
Astrosat is a multi-wavelength astronomy mission built by a consortium institutes across India led by ISRO Satellite Center (ISAC, Bengaluru), TIFR, Mumbai, IIA, Bengaluru, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC, Thiruvananthapuram), Inter-University Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA, Pune), Space Application Centre (SAC, Ahmedabad) and in collaboration with the University of leicester (UK) and the Canadian Space Agency.
The Chandra programme is managed by the NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, Alabama (USA). The flight operations and the Chandra Science are controlled by the Smithsonian Astrophysics Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts (USA).
The Hubble Space Telescope is a project between the NASA and European Space Agency (ESA). The telescope is managed by the NASA Goddard Space Flight Centre, Maryland (USA) whereas the science operations are conducted at the Space Telescope Science Institute, Maryland (USA).
The project on the detailed high-energy picture of our nearest extrasolar neighbour – Proxima Centauri is collaboration between the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (Bengaluru, India), Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (Mumbai, India), Hamburger Sternwarte- Universität Hamburg ( Germany), Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (Garching, Germany), University of Colorado (Boulder, US), Zentrum für Astronomie und Astrophysik - Technische Universität Berlin (Germany), Astronomisches Rechen-Institut (Heidelberg, Germany), University of london (UK), laboratoire d'Astrophysique ((Paris, France)