The first discovery of a planet outside of our solar system is explained by the magnetic field of the exoplanet. The planet is shown as a small circle. The Carbon ion fills an immense region. The average speed of the ion to escape is about 100,000 mph. The distance between the Earth and the sun is 1AU. The Institute of Astrophysics is in Paris.
The first signature of a magnetic field surrounding a planet outside of our solar system has been identified by researchers. Earth's magnetic field protects it from the solar wind. Magnetic fields could be used on other planets.
The Hubble Space Telescope data was used by an international team of scientists to find a magnetic field on a planet outside our solar system. This is the first time a feature has been seen on an exoplanet.
A magnetic field can explain the observations of a long tail of charged carbon particles that surround the planet. The ability to detect the magnetic fields of exoplanets is a significant step towards better understanding what these alien worlds may look like.
The team used Hubble to observe the exoplanet HAT-P-11b, a Neptune-sized planet 123 light-years from Earth, which passes directly across the face of its host star six times. The observations were made in the ultraviolet light spectrum, which is beyond what the human eye can see.
The planet is surrounded by charged particles that interact with magnetic fields. A magnetosphere is a region around a star that is formed by the interaction of the star's wind with the sun.
"This is the first time the signature of an exoplanet's magnetic field has been directly detected on a planet outside our solar system," said Gilda Ballester, one of the paper's co-authors. A strong magnetic field on a planet like Earth can protect its atmosphere and surface from bombardment by the solar wind. The evolution of life on a planet like Earth is affected by these processes.
The discovery of HAT-P-11b's magnetosphere is a significant step towards an improved understanding of habitability of an exoplanet. Not all planets and moons in our solar system have their own magnetic fields, and the connection between magnetic fields and a planet's habitability still needs more study.
The general method could be used, because Hubble's UV transit observations have revealed a magnetosphere, seen as both an extended ion component around the planet and long tail of escaping ion.
Ballester was a principal investigator of the Hubble Space Telescope program that observed HAT-P-11b. A key discovery was the observation of carbon ion in a region surrounding the planet, and also in a long tail that traveled away from the planet at 100,000 mph. The distance between Earth and the sun was reached by the tail.
The first author of the paper, Lotfi Ben-Jaffel, is a researcher at the Institute of Astrophysics in Paris.
There are interactions between HAT-P-11b's magnetic field and its immediate space environment with the solar wind from its host.
The same physics can be found in the magnetospheres of Earth and HAT-P-11b, but the exoplanet's close proximity to its star causes its upper atmosphere to warm.
The number of chemical elements in the atmosphere of HAT-P-11b is lower than expected. In our solar system, the icy gas planets, Neptune and Uranus, are rich in metals but have weak magnetic fields, while the larger gas planets, Jupiter and Saturn, have low metallicity and strong magnetic fields. Current models of exoplanet formation are challenged by the low atmospheric metallicity of HAT-P-11b.
Ballester said that the exoplanet resembles a mini-Jupiter than a Neptune. The atmospheric composition we see on HAT-P-11b suggests that further work needs to be done to refine current theories of how certain exoplanets form in general.
The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation. The programs that made the observations were the Small HST Program #14625 and the PanCET: The Panchromatic Comparative Exoplanetary Treasury program.
Nature Astronomy has a paper titled "Signatures of Strong Magnetization and a Metal-Poor Atmosphere for a Neptune-Size Exoplanet".
Lotfi Ben-Jaffel et al., Signatures of strong magnetization and a metal-poor atmosphere for a Neptune-sized exoplanet, Nature Astronomy, 2021. There is a DOI titled " 10.1038/s41550-021-01505-x".
Nature Astronomy journal has information.
The signature of the magnetic field was detected on an exoplanet on December 21st.
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