Foundations in Extrasolar Space Weather: Current Perspectives and Future Opportunities

Details
Speaker Name/Affiliation
Sebastian Pineda / LASP
When
-
Location Other (Room)
SPSC-W120
Event Details & Abstracts

The evolutionary history, and likely habitability, of exoplanet atmospheres depends on the space weather of their host stars. Understanding the particle environment, including the wind density, magnetic field strength, and velocity field, impinging on exoplanet systems remains a significant open question. This unknown impacts the interpretation of exoplanet atmosphere observations and the ongoing search for biosignatures, with facilities like JWST. I will discuss how the investigation of magnetic star-satellite interactions is opening new possibilities to study the space weather environments around different kinds of stars.  New ground-based radio facilities coming online in the near-term will revolutionize this field, enabling new science connections between ground and space-based observatories, and modeling initiatives. Understanding the physics of star-satellite interactions now is a LASP science opportunity, and will pave the way in the coming decades toward maximizing the science potential of future missions with a focus on characterizing habitable exoplanets.