The view from K2: questioning the traditional view of flaring on early dM stars
Abstract
We use K2 short cadence data obtained over a duration of 50 d during Campaign 0 to observe two M1V dwarf stars, TYC 1330-879-1 and RXJ 0626+2349. We provide an overview of our data analysis, in particular, making a comparison between using a fixed set of pixels and an aperture which follows the position of the source. We find that this moving aperture approach can give fewer non-astrophysical features compared to a fixed aperture. Both sources shows flares as energetic as observed from several M4V stars using both Kepler and ground-based telescopes. We find that the flare energy distribution of the sources shown here are very similar to the less active M3-M5 stars but are ∼8 times less likely to produce a flare of a comparable energy to the more active M0-M5 stars. We discuss the biases and sources of systematic errors when comparing the activity of stars derived from different instruments. We conclude that K2 observations will provide an excellent opportunity to perform a census of flare activity across the full range of M dwarf spectral class and hence the physical mechanisms which power them.
- Publication:
-
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Pub Date:
- May 2015
- DOI:
- 10.1093/mnras/stv527
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1503.02696
- Bibcode:
- 2015MNRAS.449.3015R
- Keywords:
-
- magnetic reconnection;
- stars: activity;
- stars: individual: TYC 1330-879-1;
- stars: individual: 1RXJ 062614.2+234942;
- stars: late-type;
- Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- Accepted for publication in MNRAS