Stellar winds and planetary atmospheres

Johnstone, Colin P.

doi:10.48550/arxiv.2105.11243

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 182 publications

(246 reference statements)

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“…For cool main-sequence stars, the magnetized wind is believed to carry away stellar angular momentum, causing decay in both their rotation rates and their high-energy radiation. These losses will influence the atmosphere of any planets in the system (Johnstone 2021).…”

Section: Angular Momentum Loss Ratementioning

confidence: 99%

Destination exoplanet: Habitability conditions influenced by stellar winds properties

2021

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The cumulative effect of the magnetized stellar winds on exoplanets dominates over other forms of star-planet interactions. When combined with photoevaporation, these winds will lead to atmospheric erosion. This is directly connected with the concept of habitable zone (HZ) planets around late-type stars. Our knowledge of these magnetized winds is limited, making numerical models useful tools to explore them. In this preliminary study, we focus on solar-like stars exploring how different stellar wind properties scale with one another. We used one of the most detailed physics-based models, the 3D Alfvén wave solar model part of the Space Weather Modeling Framework, and applied it to the stellar winds domain. Our simulations showed that the magnetic field topology on the star surface plays a fundamental role in shaping the different stellar wind properties (wind speed, mass loss rate, and angular momentum loss rate). We conclude that a characterization of the Alfvén surface is crucial when studying star-planet interaction as it can serve as an inner-boundary of the HZ.

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Section: Angular Momentum Loss Ratementioning

confidence: 99%

Destination exoplanet: Habitability conditions influenced by stellar winds properties

2021

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“…For cool main sequence stars, the magnetised wind is believed to carry away stellar angular momentum, causing decay in both their rotation rates and their high-energy radiation. These losses will influence the atmosphere of any planets in the system (Johnstone et al 2021).…”

Section: Angular Momentum Loss Ratementioning

confidence: 99%

“…For this reason, their cumulative effect will be dominant for both, the star's angular momentum evolution (Garraffo et al 2015), as well as for possible exoplanets orbiting in the system, affecting in this way the expected habitability conditions (Alvarado-Gómez et al 2016b, Meadows et al 2018. This is because sufficiently strong magnetized winds can erode a stable atmosphere and render a planet inhabitable (Khodachenko et al 2007;Zendejas et al 2010;Vidotto et al 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Destination exoplanet: Habitability conditions influenced bystellar winds properties

Chebly,

Alvarado-Gómez,

Poppenhaeger

2021

Preprint

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The cumulative effect of the magnetized stellar winds on exoplanets dominates over other forms of star-planet interactions. When combined with photoevaporation, these winds will lead to atmospheric erosion. This is directly connected with the concept of Habitable Zone (HZ) planets around late-type stars. Our knowledge of these magnetized winds is limited, making numerical models useful tools to explore them. In this preliminary study we focus on solar-like stars exploring how different stellar wind properties scale with one another. We used one of the most detailed physicsbased models, the 3D Alfvén Wave Solar Model part of the Space Weather Modeling Framework, and applied it to the stellar winds domain. Our simulations showed that the magnetic field topology on the star surface plays a fundamental role in shaping the different stellar wind properties (wind speed, mass loss rate, angular momentum loss rate). We conclude that a characterization of the Alfvén surface is crucial when studying star-planet interaction as it can serve as an inner-boundary of the HZ.

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Stellar wind impact on early atmospheres around unmagnetized Earth-like planets

Canet,

Varela,

Gómez de Castro

2024

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Stellar rotation at early ages plays a crucial role in the survival of primordial atmospheres around Earth-mass exoplanets. Earth-like planets orbiting fast-rotating stars may undergo complete photoevaporation within the first few hundred Myr driven by the enhanced stellar XUV radiation, while planets orbiting slow-rotating stars are expected to experience difficulty to lose their primordial envelopes. Besides the action of stellar radiation, stellar winds induce additional erosion on these primordial atmospheres, altering their morphology, extent, and causing supplementary atmospheric losses. In this paper, we study the impact of activity-dependent stellar winds on primordial atmospheres to evaluate the extent at which the action of these winds can be significant in the whole planetary evolution at early evolutionary stages. We performed 3D magnetohydrodynamical (MHD) simulations of the interaction of photoevaporating atmospheres around unmagnetized Earth-mass planets in the time-span between 50 and 500 Myr, analyzing the joint evolution of stellar winds and atmospheres for both fast- and slow-rotating stars. Our results reveal substantial changes in the evolution of primordial atmospheres when influenced by fast-rotating stars, with a significant reduction in extent at early ages. In contrast, atmospheres embedded in the stellar winds from slow-rotating stars remain largely unaltered. The interaction of the magnetized stellar winds with the ionized upper atmospheres of these planets allows to evaluate the formation and evolution of different MHD structures, such as double-bow shocks and induced magnetospheres. This work will shed light to the first evolutionary stages of Earth-like exoplanets, that are of crucial relevance in terms of planet habitability.

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Stellar winds and planetary atmospheres

Cited by 3 publications

References 182 publications

Destination exoplanet: Habitability conditions influenced by stellar winds properties

Destination exoplanet: Habitability conditions influenced by stellar winds properties

Destination exoplanet: Habitability conditions influenced bystellar winds properties

Stellar wind impact on early atmospheres around unmagnetized Earth-like planets

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