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M-dwarfs are common stellar hosts of habitable-zone exoplanets. NUV radiationcan severely impact the atmospheric and surface conditions of such planets,making characterization of NUV flaring activity a key aspect in determininghabitability. We use archival data from the GALEX and XMM-Newton telescopes tostudy the flaring activity of M-dwarfs in the NUV. The GALEX observations formthe most extensive dataset of M-dwarfs in the NUV to date, with exploitation ofthis data possible due to the new gPhoton2 pipeline. We run a dedicatedalgorithm to detect flares in the pipeline produced lightcurves and find someof the most energetic flares observed to date within the NUV bandpass, withenergies of $\sim 10^{34}$ ergs. Using GALEX data, we constrain flare frequencydistributions for stars from M0 to M6 in the NUV up to $10^5$ s in equivalentduration and $10^{34}$ ergs in energy, orders of magnitude above any previousstudy in the UV. We estimate the combined effect of NUV luminosities and flarerates of stars later than M2 to be sufficient for abiogenesis on habitable zoneexoplanets orbiting them. As a counterpoint, we speculate the high frequenciesof energetic UV flares and associated coronal mass ejections would inhibit theformation of an ozone layer, possibly preventing genesis of complex Earth-likelifeforms due to sterilizing levels of surface UV radiation. We also provide aframework for future observations of M-dwarfs with ULTRASAT, a wide FoV NUVtelescope to be launched in 2026.

A Census of NUV M-Dwarf Flares Using Archival GALEX Data and the gPhoton2 Pipeline