Giant Flare Around Proxima Centauri May Kill Hope For Planetary System

Last fall, lots of folks, including me, reported on evidence of dust rings around Proxima Centuari. These potential rings would imply that the star could have an elaborate planetary system alongside its confirmed exoplanet, Proxima b. But a new analysis of the same dataset calls those past results into question.

This new analysis implied that the star actually released a 1-minute-long flare, a thousand times brighter than the star’s usual shine.

This observation over time meant that the single flare may account for what appeared to be rings of dust – It’s kind of like getting three zeroes and a hundred on three tests. Saying that your average was 25% isn’t telling the whole story.