Artistic vision of a powerful flash released by a dwarf star
An international team of astronomers reported on the discovery of ASASSN-18di - a powerful luminous flux on a previously not found medium-type M-dwarf.
Scientists have observed numerous large flashes occurring on cold dwarfs. This is due to the fact that M-type and ultracold stars can exhibit high levels of magnetic activity. Then the study of flare events can give important hints on the properties of magnetic dynamometers and stellar interiors.
Recently, researchers managed to find such a flash on the M-dwarf. The ASASSN-18di event captured thanks to the All-Sky Automated Survey automatic search program. The program was able to find a lot of star flares, among which are two of the strong dwarfs M8 and L1. The absolute value of the star reaches 11.4 and is located at a distance of 7200 light years from Earth. The analysis showed that the flash showed a change in the visible value in the visual band to about 9.8. There is an assumption that the flash was noticed near the peak, because a change in magnitude indicates that this did not occur during its rapid impulse or phase of decay.
Energy analysis also showed that we have one of the strongest flashes observed in M-dwarfs, as well as other dwarfs. For more detailed information, more intensive observations are needed. Also, scientists added that such energy flashes are extremely rare, so there is little chance that we will notice the same flash in this source again.
