Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 April 2016
During UBV photoelectric measurements of G102-21 - a dM3 star recently discovered as a remarkably active X-ray source by Micela et al. (1995) - we have observed the flare shown in Fig. 1 (left panel). The observed flux increase at flare maximum and the energy output (cf. Table 1) make this event one of the largest amplitude and most energetic flares ever detected on UV Cet-type stars.
The ratios EU/EB (=8.9) and EU/EV (=3.9) are more than 7 and 2 times larger, respectively, than the mean values found for typical dMe flares by Lacy et al. (1976). Moreover, assuming the empirical relation between the absolute magnitude MV and the mean energy dissipation during a flare (Gurzadyan 1980), the energy released in the U band exceeds the predicted one by a factor of ∼ 3 · 103. Clearly, we observed a rather peculiar and rare event that does not appear to be a typical flare on red-dwarf stars.