Magnetic Flaring in the Pre–Main‐Sequence Sun and Implications for the Early Solar System

Abstract

To address the role of energetic processes in the solar nebula, we provide a detailed characterization of magnetic flaring in stellar analogs of the pre-main-sequence Sun based on two 0.5 day observations of the Orion Nebula cluster obtained with the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. The sample consists of 43 stars with masses between 0.7 and 1.4 Msolar and ages from less than 0.3 to ~=10 Myr. We find that the X-ray luminosities measured in the 0.5-8 keV band are strongly elevated over main-sequence levels with an average X>=30.3 ergs s-1 and X/L*>=-3.9. The X-ray emission is strongly variable within our exposures in nearly all solar analogs; about 30 flares with 29.0ergss-1 <31.5 ergs s-1 on timescales from 0.5 to more than 12 hr are seen during the Chandra observations. Analogs of the