A space weather model developed by a center director at the University of Alabama in Huntsville could help scientists find out which planets outside our solar system are likely to have someone home.
The effort to winnow out those that could harbor life on other planets has intensified.
A model for tracking stellar energetic particles that can influence the creation of life on exoplanets has been developed by Dr. Junxiang Hu and his team at the Center for Space Plasma and Aeronomic Research (CSPAR) at the University of Alabama System. The stellar energetic particles are too far away to be directly measured.
The atmospheric chemistry of close-in exoplanets may be impacted by the energetic particles associated with superflares from young solar-like stars.
The new research applies physics to modeling. Dr. Hu says that it can inform the search for habitable exoplanets.
He says that this work lays the groundwork for a series of future multi-disciplinary research projects dedicated to understanding the origin of life.
ThePATH model was created in 2001 by Dr. Gary Zank, who is now the CSPAR director. The earlier model was focused on getting the correct physics mechanisms in place to model particle acceleration and transport.
Dr. Hu says that large solar flares are usually associated with coronal mass ejections.
The improved Particle Acceleration and Transport in the Heliosphere model uses a physics-based approach to assess the energy spectrum of energetic particles being emitted in stellar superflares. Dr. Hu's thesis was on the model.
The research is timely, according to Dr. Zank.
This work is all about space weather in the vicinity of exoplanets, a very hot topic, and we have the most important models in the world for this, all developed in the context of studying so-called gradual solar energetic particle events in the context of space weather.
The new model was developed by Dr. Hu and Dr. Li. He collaborated with Dr. Airapetian and Dr. Jin from the SETI Institute.
Dr. Hu says that the iPATH modeling shows that the earlier results could be wrong.
Dr. Hu says that the model's output energetic particle fluence and flux can provide valuable input for the atmospheric modeling of exoplanets.
The new research shows that the model can work in other star-planet systems beyond the solar system, so the scientists did not choose specific exoplanets to model for this endeavor.
We will choose close-in rocky exoplanets around G, K and M dwarfs in the future. We will choose exoplanets that look like early Earth for case studies.
We are working closely with NASA to bring the operational model into public use, under the support of NASA's Community Coordinated Modeling Center and NASA's Space Radiation Analysis Group.
More information: Junxiang Hu et al, Extreme energetic particle events by superflare-asssociated CMEs from solar-like stars, Science Advances (2022). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abi9743 Citation: Space weather model could determine exoplanetary habitable zones (2022, March 29) retrieved 29 March 2022 from https://phys.org/news/2022-03-space-weather-exoplanetary-habitable-zones.html This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.
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