"But the catch is that they're way more active than our sun.
"They flare much more frequently and intensely."
Our sun doesn't release many powerful flares; they occur only a few times during each 11-year solar cycle.
However, these flares are much more common on Proxima Centauri.
During their observation campaign, the astronomers recorded many other flares produced by the star over the course of 40 hours.
"Proxima Centauri's planets are getting hit by something like this not once in a century, but at least once a day if not several times a day," Ms MacGregor said.
Proxima Centauri has intrigued scientists because research has suggested that the planet nearest the star, Proxima Centauri b, could be potentially habitable.