If superflares are akin to celestial temper tantrums, then our Sun might get angry more often than previously thought, according to a report in the journal Science. A superflare, defined as a solar storm that releases over one octillion joules of energy within a short time, manifests itself in data as a short, pronounced peak in brightness.
Understanding superflares’ regularity can be useful, because they can be potentially damaging. For example, a violent solar storm in 1859 knocked out the telegraph network in parts of Europe and North America. That Carrington event, while one of the strongest solar storms of the past 200 years, released only a hundredth of the energy of a superflare.
If these events happen hundreds of years apart, how can scientists measure their frequency?
