A tiny star recently unleashed what is considered the brightest burst of light ever seen in the universe from a normal star, astronomers announced today.Shining with only 1 percent of the sun's light and boasting just a third of the sun's mass, this run-of-the-mill star previously was nothing to write home about. On April 25, the red dwarf star, known as EV Lacertae, unleashed a mega-flare, packing the power of thousands of solar flares. Since the star is located 16 light-years away, in reality, the flare actually occurred 16 years ago.
The flare was first seen by the Russian-built Konus instrument on NASA's Wind satellite in the early morning hours of April 25. Two minutes later, Swift's X-ray Telescope caught the flare. The star remained bright in X-rays for eight hours before settling back to normal.
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