# Summary of K2 Program GO16082

Title: Simultaneous Observations of Wolf 359 from Earth and Space

PI: Quintana, Elisa Victoria (SETI Institute)
CoIs: Faherty, Jacqueline Kelly; Rushby, Andrew Jon; Colon, Knicole D; Howell, Steve B; Barentsen, Geert; Villadsen, Jackie; Burgasser, Adam J; Huber, Daniel; Bardalez Gagliuffi, Daniella Carolina

M-dwarfs are very long-lived and commonly form planets. Due to their low luminosity, their habitable zones (HZ) lie very close to the star (within ~0.2 AU). They are thus prime targets in the search for habitable worlds because planets in their HZ induce deep transits and high-amplitude radial velocities compared to planets in the HZ of Sun-like stars. A long debate has ensued on whether they could be habitable. A primary complication is that M-dwarfs remain magnetically active, exhibiting a high rate of strong stellar flares, for billions of years. There are predictions that a combination of flares, coronal mass ejections (CMEs), and energetic particles from an active M-dwarf could render a planet uninhabitable. However, these predictions rely on extrapolating observations of the Sun's radiation environment by orders of magnitude to model events on active M-dwarfs. To test whether the magnetic activity from M-dwarfs are consistent with solar correlations or if they require new relationships,we propose to observe four M-dwarf flare stars with K2 short cadence data and supplement these observations with simultaneous ground-based radio observations. Radio spectroscopy surveys offer the potential to detect CMEs and stellar energetic particles. These simultaneous observations will allow us to measure the relationship between CME kinetic energy, energetic particle flux, and optical flare energy for radio bursts that are associated with flares. Additionally, simultaneous K2 optical data can help distinguish between different radio emission mechanisms by looking for radio bursts drifting in frequency shortly after large optical flares. The study of stellar coherent radio bursts is still at an exploratory stage, but it promises to be a unique way of detecting stellar space weather events. This research has direct implications to exoplanet habitability because the first places we will search for life on an exoplanet will be a cool star.

Our primary target is Wolf 359; a star well-studied in science fact and fiction that is amongst our nearest stellar neighbors. At a distance of just 2.4 pc, this mid-M dwarf provides an ideal laboratory to research the physical processes of the coolest stars. We also propose three other targets: AZ Cnc is an M6.5 star whose flaring behavior has been well studied; DP Cnc and CS Cnc are bright early M-dwarfs that were observed by K2 in C5 and show large but unresolved flares in the long cadence data collected.

# Targets requested by this program that have been observed (3)
EPIC ID, RA (J2000) [deg], Dec (J2000) [deg], magnitude, Investigation IDs
211817361, 130.402251, 17.561965, 13.595, GO16005_LC|GO16052_LC|GO16056_LC|GO16082_LC|GO16082_SC
211828663, 131.306598, 17.724019, 12.994, GO16052_LC|GO16056_LC|GO16082_LC|GO16082_SC
211877371, 130.12574, 18.398743, 17.399, GO16082_LC|GO16082_SC