A NYUAD study finds that stellar flares can lead to a planet’s diminishing habitability

• Planetary habitability, defined by the ability of a planet to hold liquid water on its surface, is one of the most important concepts in exoplanet science.
• Exoplanets (planets that orbit stars outside our solar system) are subject to space weather conditions in the form of stellar flares, radiation emissions from stars.
• These emissions consist of extreme ultraviolet (XUV) photons and charged particles and can alter the exoplanet’s upper atmosphere. Current methods for determining a planet’s ability to sustain life do not take stellar activity into consideration.

Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, November 9, 2020: In a new study, researchers, led by researcher Dimitra Atri of the Center for Space Science at NYU Abu Dhabi (NYUAD), have identified which stars were most likely to host habitable exoplanets based on calculation of erosion rates of planetary atmospheres.

In the paper titled Stellar Flares Versus Luminosity: XUV-Induced Atmospheric Escape and Planetary Habitability, published in the journal Royal Astronomical Society Monthly Notices: Letters, Atri and PhD student Shane Carberry Mogan present the process of analyzing flare emissions data from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) observatory.

More frequent and lower energy flashes have been found to have a greater impact on an exoplanet’s atmosphere than less frequent and higher energy flashes. The researchers also determined how different types of stars extreme ultraviolet radiation (XUV) through stellar flare and how nearby planets are affected.

The ability to sustain an atmosphere is one of the most important requirements for a habitable planet. This research provides new insight into the habitability of exoplanets, as the effects of stellar activity were not well understood. This study also highlights the need for better numerical modeling of atmospheric escape – how planets release atmospheric gases into space – as it can lead to erosion of the atmosphere and decreased habitability of the planet.

“Given the proximity of exoplanets to host stars, it is critical to understand how space weather events linked to those stars can affect the exoplanet’s habitability,” said Atri. “The next step in the research would be to expand our dataset to analyze stellar flares from a wider variety of stars to see the long-term effects of stellar activity and to identify more potentially habitable exoplanets.”

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