It is the first very high-energy flaring episode recorded from M87 since 2010. The data were collected by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration during a multi-wavelength observational campaign in 2018, using numerous orbiting telescopes such as NASA's Fermi, HST, NuSTAR, Chandra, and Swift, along with three of the largest Cherenkov telescopes: H.E.S.S., MAGIC, and VERITAS

Stars similar to the Sun produce a gigantic outburst of radiation on average about once every hundred years per star. Such superflares release more energy than a trillion hydrogen bombs and make all previously recorded solar flares pale in comparison. This estimate is based on an inventory of 56450 sun-like stars, which an international team of researchers led by the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) Germany presents on Friday, December 13th, 2024, in the journal Science. It shows that previous studies have significantly underestimated the eruptive potential of these stars. In data from NASA’s space telescope Kepler, superflaring, sun-like stars can be found ten to a hundred times more frequently than previously assumed. The Sun, too, is likely capable of similarly violent eruptions.