Modeling star-planet interactions in far-out planetary and exoplanetary systems
| Autor: | Srijan Bharati Das, Arnab Basak, Dibyendu Nandy, Bhargav Vaidya |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2018 |
| Předmět: |
Physics
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP) 010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences Astrophysics::High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena Uranus Magnetosphere Astronomy FOS: Physical sciences Astronomy and Astrophysics Magnetic reconnection 01 natural sciences Current sheet Space and Planetary Science Planet Neptune 0103 physical sciences Physics::Space Physics Astrophysics::Solar and Stellar Astrophysics Astrophysics::Earth and Planetary Astrophysics Magnetohydrodynamics Interplanetary spaceflight 010303 astronomy & astrophysics 0105 earth and related environmental sciences Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics |
| DOI: | 10.48550/arxiv.1812.07767 |
| Popis: | The outflowing magnetized wind from a host star shapes planetary and exoplanetary magnetospheres dictating the extent of its impact. We carry out three-dimensional (3D) compressible magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of the interactions between magnetized stellar winds and planetary magnetospheres corresponding to a far-out star-planet system, with and without planetary dipole obliquity. We identify the pathways that lead to the formation of a dynamical steady-state magnetosphere and find that magnetic reconnection plays a fundamental role in the process. The magnetic energy density is found to be greater on the night-side than that on the day-side and the magnetotail is comparatively more dynamic. Magnetotail reconnection events are seen to associated with stellar wind plasma injection into the inner magnetosphere. We further study magnetospheres with extreme tilt angles keeping in perspective the examples of Uranus and Neptune. High dipole obliquities may also manifest due to polarity excursions during planetary field reversals. We find that global magnetospheric reconnection sites change for large planetary dipole obliquity and more complex current sheet structures are generated. We discuss the implications of these findings for injection of interplanetary species and energetic particles into the inner magnetosphere, auroral activity and magnetospheric radio emission. This study is relevant for exploring star planet interactions in the solar and extra-solar systems. Comment: 17 pages, 12 figures, 1 table |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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