Planned intervention: On Wednesday April 3rd 05:30 UTC Zenodo will be unavailable for up to 2-10 minutes to perform a storage cluster upgrade.
Published February 26, 2021 | Version v1
Poster Open

Destination exoplanet: Habitability conditions influenced by stellar winds properties

  • 1. Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam An der Sternwarte 16, 14482 Potsdam, Germany.
  • 2. Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam An der Sternwarte 16, 14482 Potsdam, Germany. University of Potsdam, Institute of Physics and Astronomy, Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 24/25, 14476 Potsdam-Golm.

Description

The most abundant stars in the universe - cool stars - have stellar winds. The importance of these magnetized winds is not confined to one area of study, it spans regulating processes in astrophysics such as magnetic activity and rotational evolution of stars to processes shaping exoplanet atmospheres. We are using one of the most detailed solar models that exist to date (the Space Weather Modelling Framework) and apply it to stellar winds. In this preliminary study we focus on how the magnetic field geometry affects the stellar wind properties to better understand star-planet interaction. In order to fulfill this objective, we are creating a comprehensive grid of numerical models by varying different parameters, among them the stellar rotation period, magnetic field strength, and the field geometry. Here we show results from the variation of the magnetic field geometry and strength. We find that the Alfvén surface is larger for stronger and less complex fields, and the wind speed increases for stronger magnetic fields. For further investigation, we will continue exploring the grid of parameters with the ultimate goal of putting constraints on planetary habitability.

Files

Cool_stars2.5_JUDY_CHEBLY.pdf

Files (523.0 kB)

Name Size Download all
md5:bc487b81aa5b459b76fd969dbcde85ac
523.0 kB Preview Download

Additional details

Related works

References

  • Cohen, O.; Drake, J. J. (2014). A Grid of MHD Models for Stellar Mass Loss and Spin-down Rates of Solar Analogs to arXiv:1309.5953
  • Gombosi, Tamas I.; van der Holst, Bart; Manchester, Ward B.; Sokolov, Igor V. (2018). Extended MHD modeling of the steady solar corona and the solar wind to arXiv:1807.00417
  • Garraffo, Cecilia; Drake, Jeremy J.; Cohen, Ofer (2015). Magnetic Complexity as an Explanation for Bimodal Rotation Populations among Young Stars to arXiv:1506.01713
  • Alvarado-Gómez, J. D.; Hussain, G. A. J.; Cohen, O.; Drake, J. J.; Garraffo, C.; Grunhut, J.; Gombosi, T. I. (2016). Simulating the environment around planet-hosting stars. II. Stellar winds and inner astrospheres to arXiv:1607.08405
  • Vidotto, A. A.; Gregory, S. G.; Jardine, M.; Donati, J. F.; Petit, P.; Morin, J.; Folsom, C. P., (2014). Stellar magnetism: empirical trends with age and rotation to arXiv:1404.2733