Superflares and “Hot-Jupiters”

Schaefer, King & Deliyannis (2000) reported the discovery of powerful stellar flares on single, solar-type stars. The outbursts on these F8-G8 stars were 10 2 –10 7 times more powerful than the largest solar flares. The observed properties are similar to the magnetic reconnection driven events of RS CVn binaries. Rubenstein & Schaefer (2000) suggested that superflares may be magnetic reconnection events mediated by the interaction between the magnetospheres of a close-in jovian planet and the star. Stars exhibiting superflares may therefore harbor detectable planets.