On possible types of magnetospheres of hot Jupiters

Abstract

We show that the orbits of exoplanets of the "hot Jupiter" type, as a rule, are located close to the Alfven point of the stellar wind of the parent star. At this, many hot Jupiters can be located in the sub-Alfven zone in which the magnetic pressure of the stellar wind exceeds its dynamic pressure. Therefore, magnetic field of the wind must play an extremely important role for the flow of the stellar wind around the atmospheres of the hot Jupiters. This factor must be considered both in theoretical models and in the interpretation of observational data. The analysis shows that many typical hot Jupiters should have shock-less intrinsic magnetospheres, which, apparently, do not have counterparts in the Solar System. Such magnetospheres are characterized, primarily, by the absence of the bow shock, while the magnetic barrier (ionopause) is formed by the induced currents in the upper layers of the ionosphere. We confirmed this inference by the three-dimensional numerical simulation of the flow of the parent star stellar wind around the hot Jupiter HD 209458b in which we took into account both proper magnetic field of the planet and magnetic field of the wind.

Accepted in Astronomy Reports, 23 pages, 10 figures

References in corpus (8)

• Atmospheric Escape from Hot Jupiters
• Magnetic moment and plasma environment of HD 209458b as determined from Ly$\alpha$ observations
• Exoplanet HD 209458b : Evaporation strengthened
• Exoplanet HD209458b: inflated hydrogen atmosphere but no sign of evaporation
• The Influence of Coronal Mass Ejections on the Mass-loss Rates of Hot-Jupiters
• Mass-Loss Rates of "Hot-Jupiter" Exoplanets with Various Types of Gaseous Envelopes
• Influence of Photoelectrons on the Structure and Dynamics of the Upper Atmosphere of a Hot Jupiter
• The Influence of Coronal Mass Ejections on the Gas Dynamics of the Atmosphere of a "Hot~Jupiter" Exoplanet

Cited by in corpus (7)

• The impact of intrinsic magnetic field on the absorption signatures of elements probing the upper atmosphere of HD209458b
• Dynamical Evolution of Closely Packed Multiple Planetary Systems Subject to Atmospheric Mass-Loss
• Space environment and magnetospheric Poynting fluxes of the exoplanet $\tau$ Boötis b
• Atmospheric escape in hot Jupiters under sub-Alfvénic interactions
• Migrating Dynamo Waves and Consequences for Stellar Current Sheets
• Planetary magnetosphere evolution around post-main-sequence stars
• Comparative Analysis of the Model for Exoplanet Atmosphere Outflow