Modeling the Space Weather Environment of Terrestrial Exoplanets
| dc.contributor.advisor | Toffoletto, Frank | en_US |
| dc.contributor.advisor | Alexander, David | en_US |
| dc.creator | Sciola, Anthony | en_US |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2021-05-03T22:08:50Z | en_US |
| dc.date.available | 2021-05-03T22:08:50Z | en_US |
| dc.date.created | 2021-05 | en_US |
| dc.date.issued | 2021-04-28 | en_US |
| dc.date.submitted | May 2021 | en_US |
| dc.date.updated | 2021-05-03T22:08:50Z | en_US |
| dc.description.abstract | The majority of currently known terrestrial exoplanets orbit close to their host stars, on the order of 0.05 AU. Such planets orbiting M Dwarf stars, assuming an Earth-like atmosphere, have the potential to possess liquid water on their surface, a key requirement for habitability of life as we are familiar with. However such close proximity to the star is also likely to result in the planet experiencing stellar wind pressures orders of magnitude greater than that at Earth. An understanding of whether the planet possesses an intrinsic magnetic field, or magnetosphere, and how this interacts with the extreme stellar wind, is necessary in order to constrain other parameters such as atmospheric loss rate. There is a unique radio emission which is expected to be commonly produced by magnetized planets, and is produced by every magnetized Solar System planet. Despite estimates predicting that such emission from Jupiter-sized set of exoplanets should be observable, there have been no confirmed detections thus far. This thesis utilizes magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) models coupled to the Rice Convection Model (RCM), originally developed to simulate Earth’s magnetosphere, to better understand the magnetic environments of terrestrial exoplanets. The first project adapts a coupled MHD+RCM model to simulate the environment of Proxima Centauri b, and estimates the rate of atmospheric loss via charge exchange. The second addresses the calculation of expected radio emission from a given exoplanetary environment, both analytically and numerically, which includes the effects of both ionospheric saturation, and secondary inner magnetosphere currents, on the radio signal’s location of emission and total signal power. This work may be used to better determine which star-planet systems may be more likely to produce observable radio emission, and are therefore better targets for future observation. | en_US |
| dc.format.mimetype | application/pdf | en_US |
| dc.identifier.citation | Sciola, Anthony. "Modeling the Space Weather Environment of Terrestrial Exoplanets." (2021) Diss., Rice University. <a href="https://hdl.handle.net/1911/110465">https://hdl.handle.net/1911/110465</a>. | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/1911/110465 | en_US |
| dc.language.iso | eng | en_US |
| dc.rights | Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise indicated. Permission to reuse, publish, or reproduce the work beyond the bounds of fair use or other exemptions to copyright law must be obtained from the copyright holder. | en_US |
| dc.subject | Exoplanet | en_US |
| dc.subject | Magnetosphere | en_US |
| dc.subject | Radio emission | en_US |
| dc.title | Modeling the Space Weather Environment of Terrestrial Exoplanets | en_US |
| dc.type | Thesis | en_US |
| dc.type.material | Text | en_US |
| thesis.degree.department | Physics and Astronomy | en_US |
| thesis.degree.discipline | Natural Sciences | en_US |
| thesis.degree.grantor | Rice University | en_US |
| thesis.degree.level | Doctoral | en_US |
| thesis.degree.name | Doctor of Philosophy | en_US |
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