Detection of a giant white-light flare on an L2.5 dwarf with the Next Generation Transit Survey
Year: 2019
Type: article
Abstract: We present the detection of a ΔV ∼ −10 flare from the ultracool L2.5 dwarf ULAS J224940.13−011236.9 with the Next Generation Transit Survey (NGTS). The flare was detected in a targeted search of late-type stars in NGTS full-frame images and represents one of the largest flares ever observed from an ultracool dwarf. This flare also extends the detection of white-light flares to stars with temperatures below 2000 K. We calculate the energy of the flare to be $3.4^{+0.9}_{-0.7}\times 10^{33}$ erg, making it an order of magnitude more energetic than the Carrington event on the Sun. Our data show how the high-cadence NGTS full-frame images can be used to probe white-light flaring behaviour in the latest spectral types.
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
Funders: National Science Foundation, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, University of California, California Institute of Technology, University of Cambridge, University of Leicester, University of Warwick, Queen's University Belfast, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Université de Genève, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, University of California, Los Angeles, Science and Technology Facilities Council
Awards: The Next Generation Transit Survey (NGTS): Operations 2019-2022, Exoplanetary science with the Next Generation Transit Survey, G2981143, G3487714248, The Next Generation Transit Survey (NGTS): Deployment and Operations, Discovery and characterisation of transiting exoplanets, The Next Generation Transit Survey (NGTS) : Deployment and Operations, G5878965429, Warwick Astronomy and Astrophysics Consolidated Grant 2017-2020, Irradiated atmospheres of brown dwarfs: providing an insight into exoplanet atmospheres
OpenAlex ID: W2913175661