Wuppertal 2015 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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EP: Fachverband Extraterrestrische Physik

EP 12: Exoplaneten/Astrophysik

EP 12.4: Vortrag

Freitag, 13. März 2015, 11:45–12:00, G.10.02 (HS 9)

Stellar-Wind Interaction With Exoplanet Atmospheres — •Slawa Kabanovic and Joachim Saur — Institut für Geophysik und Meteorologie, Universität zu Köln, Cologne, Germany

Among the various discovered exoplanets, a large number is orbiting at close radial distance to their central star. Thus the upper atmosphere of these close-in planets experiences strong X-ray and EUV radiation, which plays an important role in observed atmospheric mass loss. Besides the stellar radiation, the stellar wind can also interact with the planetary atmosphere and play an important role in atmospheric mass loss. Thus, we model the stellar wind interaction with a planetary atmosphere in order to investigate the importance of this interaction. The simulations are performed with a 3D Code 'ZEUS MP'. This is a massive parallel code which solves the magnetohydrodynamic equations. By estimating the collision rate and the momentum-transfer of the dense plasma environment with the upper atmosphere we provide simple estimates for the mass loss rates of the upper atmosphere. Another basic aim of our study is to understand the plasma and magnetic field environment around exoplanets for different planetary and stellar wind properties. We also determine the strength of the interaction for different planetary atmospheres and stellar wind conditions.