Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-2lccl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T16:10:11.312Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Probing Bow Shocks Around Exoplanets During Transits

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 April 2012

A. A. Vidotto ,
M. Jardine  and
C. Helling
A. A. Vidotto
Affiliation:
SUPA, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St Andrews, North Haugh, St Andrews, KY16 9SS, UK email: Aline.Vidotto@st-andrews.ac.uk
M. Jardine
Affiliation:
SUPA, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St Andrews, North Haugh, St Andrews, KY16 9SS, UK email: Aline.Vidotto@st-andrews.ac.uk
C. Helling
Affiliation:
SUPA, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St Andrews, North Haugh, St Andrews, KY16 9SS, UK email: Aline.Vidotto@st-andrews.ac.uk
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Here, we summarise the conditions that might lead to the formation of a bow shock surrounding a planet's magnetosphere. Such shocks are formed as a result of the interaction of a planet with its host star wind. In the case of close-in planets, the shock develops ahead of the planetary orbit. If this shocked material is able to absorb stellar radiation, the shock signature can be revealed in (asymmetric) transit light curves. We propose that this is the case of the gas giant planet WASP-12b, whose near-UV transit observations have detected the presence of an extended material ahead of the planetary orbit. We show that shock detection through transit observations can be a useful tool to constrain planetary magnetic fields.

Keywords

planets and satellites: general – stars: windsoutflows – stars: coronae
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 7 , Symposium S282: From Interacting Binaries to Exoplanets: Essential Modeling Tools , July 2011 , pp. 117 - 118
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2012

References

Fossati, L., Haswell, C. A., Froning, C. S., et al. , 2010a, ApJ (Letters), 714, L222CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fossati, L., Bagnulo, S., Elmasli, A., et al. , 2010b, ApJ, 720, 872CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hebb, L., Collier-Cameron, A., Loeillet, B., et al. , 2009, ApJ, 693, 1920CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lai, D., Helling, Ch., & van den Heuvel, E. P. J. 2010, ApJ, 721, 923CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vidotto, A. A., Jardine, M. & Helling, Ch. 2010, ApJ (Letters), 722, L168CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vidotto, A. A., Jardine, M. & Helling, Ch. 2011a, MNRAS (Letters), 411, L46CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vidotto, A. A., Jardine, M. & Helling, Ch. 2011b, MNRAS, 414, 1573CrossRefGoogle Scholar