Star Suddenly Expanded

From the Metro:

Astronomers have recorded a gigantic stellar flare emanating from a baby star way out in space. They say this massive explosion of energy and plasma is around 10,000 times bigger than the largest solar flare ever recorded coming from our own sun. It’s so powerful that it could be part of the ingredients for creating brand new planets. James Jackman, a University of Warwick PhD student who observed the flare, said: ‘This is normally a star that shows little activity and stays a constant brightness. Then, on this one particular night, we saw it suddenly grow seven times brighter than normal for a few hours, which is pretty extreme. And then after that it goes back to normal.