Space Weather & Heliophysics Archives

This artist's illustration shows a planet (dark silhouette) passing in front of the red dwarf star AU Microscopii. The planet is so close to the eruptive star a ferocious blast of stellar wind and blistering ultraviolet radiation is heating the planet's hydrogen atmosphere, causing it to escape into space. Four times Earth's diameter, the planet is slowly evaporating its atmosphere, which stretches out linearly along its orbital path. This process may eventually leave behind a rocky core. The illustration is based on measurements made by the Hubble Space Telescope. Credits: NASA, ESA, and Joseph Olmsted (STScI)

Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Press Release, Space Weather & Heliophysics

A Young Super-Earth Orbiting Red Dwarf AU Microscopii Is Evaporating

by Keith CowingJuly 29, 2023July 29, 2023

A young planet whirling around a petulant red dwarf star is changing in unpredictable ways orbit-by-orbit. It is so close to its parent star that it experiences a consistent, torrential […]

Velocity field magnitude distribution around the planetary obstacle for each simulated model. The velocity magnitude is normalized by the interplanetary velocity value, defined as injected in the outer boundary side of the domain. -- astro-ph.EP

Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Space Weather & Heliophysics, Status Report

Large-scale Structures In The Stellar Wind Of Fast-rotating Stars Spawned By The Presence Of Earth-like Planets

by Keith CowingJuly 21, 2023July 21, 2023

Forming planets around young, fast-rotating solar-like stars are exposed to an intense X-ray/extreme ultraviolet radiation field and strongly magnetized stellar winds, as a consequence of the high magnetic activity of […]

Three dimensional view of the extrapolated large-scale magnetic field of GJ 436. The colours at the surface of the star represent the radial magnetic field strength, while the blue/red colours along the magnetic field lines represent negative/positive polarities of the radial field. The rotation axis of the star is along the Z-axis and the source surface is set to 4 stellar radii, beyond which the field lines are fully open. -- astro-ph.SR

Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Space Weather & Heliophysics, Status Report

The Space Weather Around The Exoplanet GJ 436b

by Keith CowingJune 28, 2023

The space environment in which planets are embedded depends mainly on the host star and impacts the evolution of the planetary atmosphere. The quiet M dwarf GJ 436 hosts a […]

CME mass estimated through different ways plotted against flaring bolometric energy. KIC 8093473 is marked by the two red open stars connected by a dashed line. The two points correspond the CME masses estimated by different CME dynamical length scales (see the main text for the details). The four M-dwarf flares studied in Wang et al. (2021) and Wang et al. (2022) are denoted by the magenta open squares. The stellar CME candidates complied in Moschou et al. (2019) and one studied in Argiroffi et al. (2019) are shown by the solid blue points. The solar flare-CME events studied in Yashiro & Gopalswamy (2009) are denoted by the cyan circles. The best fit to these solar events obtained in Drake et al. (2013) is presented by the dashed line. -- astro-ph.SR

Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Space Weather & Heliophysics, Status Report

Possible Detection of A Flare-associated Coronal Mass Ejection on A M-dwarf

by Keith CowingMay 17, 2023May 17, 2023

We here report a probable detection of a stellar coronal mass ejection (CME) in active M dwarf KIC 8093473 by performing an analysis on its time resolved X-ray spectra observed […]

Astrochemistry, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release, Space Weather & Heliophysics

A Stormy, Active Sun May Have Kickstarted Life On Earth

by Keith CowingMay 2, 2023May 2, 2023

The first building blocks of life on Earth may have formed thanks to eruptions from our Sun, a new study finds.

An exploded star can pose more risks to nearby planets

Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Extinction events, Habitable Zones, Space Weather & Heliophysics

New Stellar Danger to Exoplanets Identified by Chandra X-ray Observatory

by Keith CowingApril 21, 2023April 27, 2023

An exploded star can pose more risks to nearby planets than previously thought, according to a new study from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and other X-ray telescopes. This newly identified […]

Poynting flux divergence in (a) the bow shock nose and (b) magnetopause reconnection regions. Simulation with southward IMF orientation, |B|IMF = 30 nT and Pd = 1.2 nPa. Black lines indicate the region of the bow shock (n > 20 cm−3 ), the red lines the exoplanet magnetic field lines and the pink iso-surface the reconnection region in the XZ plane (|B| < 5 nT). -- -astro-ph.EP

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biophysics, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Radiation, Space Weather & Heliophysics, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

MHD Study Of Extreme Space Weather Conditions For Exoplanets With Earth-like Magnetospheres: On Habitability Conditions And Radio-emission

by Keith CowingApril 18, 2023April 27, 2023

The present study aims at characterizing the habitability conditions of exoplanets with an Earth-like magnetosphere inside the habitable zone of M stars and F stars like tau Boo, caused by […]

While metal-poor stars emit more UV radiation overall than metal-rich ones, for metal-poor stars the ratio of ozone-generating UV-C radiation to ozone-destroying UV-B radiation allows for the formation of a thicker protective ozone-layer around the orbiting planets. Therefore, the planets belonging to metal-poor stars provide more favourable conditions for the emergence of complex life. CREDIT MPS/hormesdesign.de

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release, Space Weather & Heliophysics

Metal-Poor Stars Are More Life-Friendly

by Keith CowingApril 18, 2023April 18, 2023

Stars that contain comparatively large amounts of heavy elements provide less favourable conditions for the emergence of complex life than metal-poor stars, as scientists from the Max Planck Institutes for […]

Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Press Release, Space Weather & Heliophysics

Residual Eccentricity Of An Earth-like Planet Orbiting A Red Giant Sun

by Keith CowingApril 17, 2023April 17, 2023

The late phases of the orbital evolution of an Earth-like planet around a Sun-like star are revisited considering the effect of the density fluctuations associated with convective motions inside the […]

The Sun's photosphere, photographed during a solar maximum. (Credit: Filipe Pires (Porto Planetarium - Ciência Viva Center & Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço))

Press Release, Space Weather & Heliophysics

Our Sun Is A Normal Star After All

by Keith CowingApril 11, 2023April 11, 2023

With data from the Kepler (NASA), Gaia (ESA) and SOHO (NASA/ESA) satellites, a team, led by Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço (IA2) researcher ngela Santos, seems to have […]