When suns lash out

CHANDRA X-RAY OBSERVATORY/SPITZER SPACE TELESCOPE, 16 JUNE 2021

The Lagoon Nebula, M8, is among the targets of a huge 24,000-star X-ray survey of super and mega-flares: outbursts from stars up to 10 million times more energetic than the 1859 Carrington Event, that caused electrical chaos on Earth. The study is a step towards understanding whether giant flares help planets form around stars or blast away and evaporate any emerging atmospheres with their powerful radiation.