Variability of solar/stellar activity and magnetic field and its influence on planetary atmosphere evolution
- Author(s)
- Helmut Lammer, Manuel Güdel, Yuri N. Kulikov, Ignasi Ribas, Teimuraz V. Zaqarashvili
- Abstract
It is shown that the evolution of planetary atmospheres can only be understood if one recognizes the fact that the radiation and particle environment of the Sun or a planet's host star were not always on the same level as at present. New insights and the latest observations and research regarding the evolution of the solar radiation, plasma environment and solar/stellar magnetic field derived from the observations of solar proxies with different ages will be given. We show that the extreme radiation and plasma environments of the young Sun/stars have important implications for the evolution of planetary atmospheres and may be responsible for the fact that planets with low gravity like early Mars most likely never build up a dense atmosphere during the first few 100 Myr after their origin. Finally we present an innovative new idea on how hydrogen clouds and energetic neutral atom (ENA) observations around transiting Earth-like exoplanets by space observatories such as the WSO-UV, can be used for validating the addressed atmospheric evolution studies. Such observations would enhance our understanding on the impact on the activity of the young Sun on the early atmospheres of Venus, Earth, Mars and other Solar System bodies as well as exoplanets.
- Organisation(s)
- Department of Astrophysics
- External organisation(s)
- Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften (ÖAW), Russian Academy of Sciences, Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)
- Journal
- Earth, Planets and Space (EPS)
- Volume
- 64
- Pages
- 179-199
- No. of pages
- 21
- ISSN
- 1343-8832
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.5047/eps.2011.04.002
- Publication date
- 2012
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 103003 Astronomy
- Portal url
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/variability-of-solarstellar-activity-and-magnetic-field-and-its-influence-on-planetary-atmosphere-evolution(8ec9453e-9e5d-4988-86f8-8100fce2a4b2).html