Cosmic Rays near Proxima Centauri b

Cosmic Rays near Proxima Centauri b

Authors:

Struminsky et al

Abstract:

Cosmic rays are an important factor of space weather determining radiation conditions near the Earth and it seems to be essential to clarify radiation conditions near extrasolar planets too. Last year a terrestrial planet candidate was discovered in an orbit around Proxima Centauri. Here we present our estimates on parameters of stellar wind of the Parker model, possible fluxes and fluencies of galactic and stellar cosmic rays based on the available data of the Proxima Centauri activity and its magnetic field. We found that galactic cosmic rays will be practically absent near Proxima~b up to energies of 1~TeV due to the modulation by the stellar wind. Stellar cosmic rays may be accelerated in Proxima Centauri events, which are able to permanently maintain density of stellar cosmic rays in the astrosphere comparable to low energy cosmic ray density in the heliosphere. Maximal proton intensities in extreme Proxima events should be by 3--4 orders more than in solar events.

Stellar Cosmic Rays in a Habitable Zone

Stellar Cosmic Rays in a Habitable Zone 

Authors: 

Struminsky et al 

Abstract: 

According to recent observations relative number of flare stars does not change very much from cool dwarfs to hot A stars. Flare energies are strongly correlated with stellar luminosity and radius. Whence it follows that the typical magnetic field associated with a flare is several tens gauss and the typical flare loop length-scales are parts of the stellar radius. Flares on O--B stars were not observed, but they are possible, since strong magnetic fields are detected on O--B stars. Therefore stars of O--M spectral classes are potential sources of cosmic rays. Energy estimates of a magnetic field strength in a tube in photospheres of O--M stars are performed. Basing on their values possible flare energies and numbers of accelerated protons are estimated. The values obtained for the Sun correspond to observations by order of magnitude that justify estimates for other stars. Values of magnetic field strength in a tube differ less than five times for O and M flares (700 and 3500~G), but corresponding flare energies and numbers of accelerated protons for O stars are greater by five orders. Contrary fluencies of stellar protons appear to be five orders less.

Galactic Cosmic rays on Extrasolar Earth-like Exolanets' Atmospheres

Galactic cosmic rays on extrasolar Earth-like planets: II. Atmospheric implications

Authors:

Grießmeier et al

Abstract:

Theoretical arguments indicate that close-in terrestial exoplanets may have weak magnetic fields. As described in the companion article (Paper I), a weak magnetic field results in a high flux of galactic cosmic rays to the top of the planetary atmosphere. We investigate effects that may result from a high flux of galactic cosmic rays both throughout the atmosphere and at the planetary surface. Using an air shower approach, we calculate how the atmospheric chemistry and temperature change under the influence of galactic cosmic rays for Earth-like (N_2-O_2 dominated) atmospheres. We evaluate the production and destruction rate of atmospheric biosignature molecules. We derive planetary emission and transmission spectra to study the influence of galactic cosmic rays on biosignature detectability. We then calculate the resulting surface UV flux, the surface particle flux, and the associated equivalent biological dose rates. We find that up to 20% of stratospheric ozone is destroyed by cosmic-ray protons. The reduction of the planetary ozone layer leads to an increase in the weighted surface UV flux by two orders of magnitude under stellar UV flare conditions. The resulting biological effective dose rate is, however, too low to strongly affect surface life. We also examine the surface particle flux: For a planet with a terrestrial atmosphere, a reduction of the magnetic shielding efficiency can increase the biological radiation dose rate by a factor of two. For a planet with a weaker atmosphere (with a surface pressure of 97.8 hPa), the planetary magnetic field has a much stronger influence on the biological radiation dose, changing it by up to two orders of magnitude.

Effects of stellar cosmic rays on M Dwarf Earth-like Exoplanets' Atmospheres

Atmospheric effects of stellar cosmic rays on Earth-like exoplanets orbiting M-dwarfs

Authors:

Tabataba-Vakili et al

Abstract:

M-dwarf stars are generally considered favourable for rocky planet detection. However, such planets may be subject to extreme conditions due to possible high stellar activity. The goal of this work is to determine the potential effect of stellar cosmic rays on key atmospheric species of Earth-like planets orbiting in the habitable zone of M-dwarf stars and show corresponding changes in the planetary spectra. We build upon the cosmic rays model scheme of Grenfell et al. (2012), who considered cosmic ray induced NOx production, by adding further cosmic ray induced production mechanisms (e.g. for HOx) and introducing primary protons of a wider energy range (16 MeV - 0.5 TeV). Previous studies suggested that planets in the habitable zone that are subject to strong flaring conditions have high atmospheric methane concentrations, while their ozone biosignature is completely destroyed. Our current study shows, however, that adding cosmic ray induced HOx production can cause a decrease in atmospheric methane abundance of up to 80\%. Furthermore, the cosmic ray induced HOx molecules react with NOx to produce HNO3, which produces strong HNO3 signals in the theoretical spectra and reduces NOx-induced catalytic destruction of ozone so that more than 25\% of the ozone column remains. Hence, an ozone signal remains visible in the theoretical spectrum (albeit with a weaker intensity) when incorporating the new cosmic ray induced NOx and HOx schemes, even for a constantly flaring M-star case. We also find that HNO3 levels may be high enough to be potentially detectable. Since ozone concentrations, which act as the key shield against harmful UV radiation, are affected by cosmic rays via NOx-induced catalytic destruction of ozone, the impact of stellar cosmic rays on surface UV fluxes is also studied.

How Many Cosmic Rays Can Reach the Surface of Different Types of Terrestrial Exoplanets

Galactic cosmic rays on extrasolar Earth-like planets I. Cosmic ray flux

Authors:

Grießmeier et al

Abstract:

Theoretical arguments indicate that close-in terrestial exoplanets may have weak magnetic fields, especially in the case of planets more massive than Earth (super-Earths). Planetary magnetic fields, however, constitute one of the shielding layers that protect the planet against cosmic-ray particles. In particular, a weak magnetic field results in a high flux of Galactic cosmic rays that extends to the top of the planetary atmosphere. We wish to quantify the flux of Galactic cosmic rays to an exoplanetary atmosphere as a function of the particle energy and of the planetary magnetic moment. We numerically analyzed the propagation of Galactic cosmic-ray particles through planetary magnetospheres. We evaluated the efficiency of magnetospheric shielding as a function of the particle energy (in the range 16 MeV ≤ E ≤ 524 GeV) and as a function of the planetary magnetic field strength (in the range 0 M⊕ ≤ {M} ≤ 10 M⊕). Combined with the flux outside the planetary magnetosphere, this gives the cosmic-ray energy spectrum at the top of the planetary atmosphere as a function of the planetary magnetic moment. We find that the particle flux to the planetary atmosphere can be increased by more than three orders of magnitude in the absence of a protecting magnetic field. For a weakly magnetized planet (M=0.05M⊕), only particles with energies below 512 MeV are at least partially shielded. For a planet with a magnetic moment similar to Earth, this limit increases to 32 GeV, whereas for a strongly magnetized planet (M=10.0M⊕), partial shielding extends up to 200 GeV. We find that magnetic shielding strongly controls the number of cosmic-ray particles reaching the planetary atmosphere. The implications of this increased particle flux are discussed in a companion article.

Impacts of Cosmic Rays on M Dwarf Habitable Zone Biomarkers

Response of Atmospheric Biomarkers to NOx-induced Photochemistry Generated by Stellar Cosmic Rays for Earth-like Planets in the Habitable Zone of M-Dwarf Stars

Authors:

Grenfell et al

Abstract:

Understanding whether M-dwarf stars may host habitable planets with Earth-like atmospheres and biospheres is a major goal in exoplanet research. If such planets exist, the question remains as to whether they could be identified via spectral signatures of biomarkers. Such planets may be exposed to extreme intensities of cosmic rays that could perturb their atmospheric photochemistry. Here, we consider stellar activity of M-dwarfs ranging from quiet up to strong flaring conditions and investigate one particular effect upon biomarkers, namely, the ability of secondary electrons caused by stellar cosmic rays to break up atmospheric molecular nitrogen (N2), which leads to production of nitrogen oxides in the planetary atmosphere, hence affecting biomarkers such as ozone. We apply a stationary model, that is, without a time-dependence, hence we are calculating the limiting case where the atmospheric chemistry response time of the biomarkers is assumed to be slow and remains constant compared with rapid forcing by the impinging stellar flares. This point should be further explored in future work with time-dependent models. For the flaring case O3 is mainly destroyed via direct titration with nitrogen oxides and not via the familiar catalytic cycle photochemistry, which occurs on Earth. For scenarios with low O3, Rayleigh scattering by the main atmospheric gases became more important for shielding the planetary surface from ultra-violet radiation. A major result of this work is that the biomarker O3 survived all the stellar-activity scenarios considered except for the strong case, whereas the biomarker nitrous oxide could survive in the planetary atmosphere under all conditions of stellar activity considered here, which clearly has important implications for missions that aim to detect spectroscopic biomarkers.

Cosmic Rays can Produce Radionuclides in Protoplanetary Disks

SOLAR COSMIC-RAY INTERACTION WITH PROTOPLANETARY DISKS: PRODUCTION OF SHORT-LIVED RADIONUCLIDES AND AMORPHIZATION OF CRYSTALLINE MATERIAL

Authors:

Trappitsch et al

Abstract:

Solar cosmic-ray (SCR) interactions with a protoplanetary disk have been invoked to explain several observations of primitive planetary materials. In our own Solar System, the presence of short-lived radionuclides (SLRs) in the oldest materials has been attributed to spallation reactions induced in phases that were irradiated by energetic particles in the solar nebula. Furthermore, observations of other protoplanetary disks show a mixture of crystalline and amorphous grains, though no correlation between grain crystallinity and disk or stellar properties have been identified. As most models for the origin of crystalline grains would predict such correlations, it was suggested that amorphization by stellar cosmic-rays may be masking or erasing such correlations. Here we quantitatively investigate these possibilities by modeling the interaction of energetic particles emitted by a young star with the surrounding protoplanetary disk. We do this by tracing the energy evolution of SCRs emitted from the young star through the disk and model the amount of time that dust grains would spend in regions where they would be exposed to these particles. We find that this irradiation scenario cannot explain the total SLR content of the solar nebula; however, this scenario could play a role in the amorphization of crystalline material at different locations or epochs of the disk over the course of its evolution.

Will Flare Star Exoplanets see More Forbush Decreases?

How are Forbush decreases related with interplanetary magnetic field enhancements ?

Authors:

Arunbatu et al

Abstract:

Aims.

Forbush decrease (FD) is a transient decrease followed by a gradual recovery in the observed galactic cosmic ray intensity. We seek to understand the relationship between the FDs and near-Earth interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) enhancements associated with solar coronal mass ejections (CMEs).

Methods.

We use muon data at cutoff rigidities ranging from 14 to 24 GV from the GRAPES-3 tracking muon telescope to identify FD events. We select those FD events that have a reasonably clean profile, and magnitude greater than 0.25%. We use IMF data from ACE/WIND spacecrafts. We look for correlations between the FD profile and that of the one hour averaged IMF. We ask if the diffusion of high energy protons into the large scale magnetic field is the cause of the lag observed between the FD and the IMF.

Results.

The enhancement of the IMF associated with FDs occurs mainly in the shock-sheath region, and the turbulence level in the magnetic field is also enhanced in this region. The observed FD profiles look remarkably similar to the IMF enhancement profiles. The FDs typically lag the IMF enhancement by a few hours. The lag corresponds to the time taken by high energy protons to diffuse into the magnetic field enhancement via cross-field diffusion.

Conclusions.

Our findings show that high rigidity FDs associated with CMEs are caused primarily by the cumulative diffusion of protons across the magnetic field enhancement in the turbulent sheath region between the shock and the CME.

More Cosmic Ray Effects on Protoplanetary Disk Formation

Cosmic-ray propagation at small scale: a support for protostellar disc formation

Authors:

Padovani et al

Abstract:

As long as magnetic fields remain frozen into the gas, the magnetic braking prevents the formation of protostellar discs. This condition is subordinate to the ionisation fraction characterising the inmost parts of a collapsing cloud. The ionisation level is established by the number and the energy of the cosmic rays able to reach these regions. Adopting the method developed in our previous studies, we computed how cosmic rays are attenuated as a function of column density and magnetic field strength. We applied our formalism to low- and high-mass star formation models obtained by numerical simulations of gravitational collapse that include rotation and turbulence. In general, we found that the decoupling between gas and magnetic fields, condition allowing the collapse to go ahead, occurs only when the cosmic-ray attenuation is taken into account with respect to a calculation in which the cosmic-ray ionisation rate is kept constant. We also found that the extent of the decoupling zone also depends on the dust grain size distribution and is larger if large grains (of radius about 0.1 microns) are formed by compression and coagulation during cloud collapse. The decoupling region disappears for the high-mass case due to magnetic field diffusion that is caused by turbulence and that is not included in the low-mass models. We infer that a simultaneous study of the cosmic-ray propagation during the cloud's collapse may lead to values of the gas resistivity in the innermost few hundred AU around a forming protostar that is higher than generally assumed.

X Ray and Cosmic Ray Ionization of TW Hyadrae's Protoplanetary Disk

CONSTRAINING THE X-RAY AND COSMIC-RAY IONIZATION CHEMISTRY OF THE TW Hya PROTOPLANETARY DISK: EVIDENCE FOR A SUB-INTERSTELLAR COSMIC-RAY RATE

Authors:

Cleeves et al

Abstract:

We present an observational and theoretical study of the primary ionizing agents (cosmic rays (CRs) and X-rays) in the TW Hya protoplanetary disk. We use a set of resolved and unresolved observations of molecular ions and other molecular species, encompassing 11 lines total, in concert with a grid of disk chemistry models. The molecular ion constraints comprise new data from the Submillimeter Array on HCO+, acquired at unprecedented spatial resolution, and data from the literature, including ALMA observations of N2H+. We vary the model incident CR flux and stellar X-ray spectra and find that TW Hya's HCO+ and N2H+ emission are best-fit by a moderately hard X-ray spectra, as would be expected during the "flaring" state of the star, and a low CR ionization rate, ζCR lsim 10–19 s–1. This low CR rate is the first indication of the presence of CR exclusion by winds and/or magnetic fields in an actively accreting T Tauri disk system. With this new constraint, our best-fit ionization structure predicts a low turbulence "dead-zone" extending from the inner edge of the disk out to 50-65 AU. This region coincides with an observed concentration of millimeter grains, and we propose that the inner region of TW Hya is a dust (and possibly planet) growth factory as predicted by previous theoretical work.

Stellar Wind-Cosmic Ray Interaction & its Effect on Protoplanetary Disk Processes

Wind-driven Exclusion of Cosmic Rays in the Protoplanetary Disk Environment

Authors:

Cleeves et al

Abstract:

The recent (apparent) passage of the Voyager 1 spacecraft into interstellar space provides us with front-row seats to the complex interplay between the solar wind and the protective surrounding bubble known as heliosphere. The heliosphere extends radially out to ∼100 AU from the sun, and within this sphere of influence, the solar wind modulates the incoming flux of galactic cosmic rays (CRs), especially those at low energies. Newly formed stars, which support both strong magnetic fields and winds, are expected to produce analogous regions of CR exclusion, perhaps at elevated levels. Such young stars are encircled by molecular gas-rich disks, and the net removal of CRs from the circumstellar environment significantly reduces the expected CR ionization rate in the disk gas, most likely by many orders-of-magnitude. The loss of ionization reduces disk turbulence, and thereby affects both planet-formation and active chemical processes in the disk. We present models of CR exclusion and explore the implications for turbulence and for predicted chemical abundances. We also discuss means by which ALMA can be used to search for extrasolar heliosphere-analogs around young stars.