Planetary Magnetism as a Parameter in Exoplanet Habitability

Abstract

Evidence from the solar system suggests that, unlike Venus and Mars, the presence of a strong magnetic dipole moment on Earth has helped maintain liquid water on its surface. Therefore, planetary magnetism could have a significant effect on the long-term maintenance of atmosphere and liquid water on rocky exoplanets. We use Olson and Christensen's (2006) model to estimate magnetic dipole moments of rocky exoplanets with radii R${}_p$ $\le$ 1.23 R${}_{\oplus }$. Even when modelling maximum magnetic dipole moments, only Kepler-186 f has a magnetic dipole moment larger than the Earth's, while approximately half of rocky exoplanets detected in the circumstellar habitable zone have a negligible magnetic dipole moment. This suggests that planetary magnetism is an important factor when prioritizing observations of potentially habitable planets.

Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 14 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (1)

• On the protection of extrasolar Earth-like planets around K/M stars against galactic cosmic rays

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