Related papers: X-ray Studies of Planetary Systems: An Astro2010 D…
Over the last two decades, the discovery of exoplanets has fundamentally changed our perception of the universe and humanity's place within it. Recent work indicates that a solar system's X-ray and high energy particle environment is of…
Although the environments of star and planet formation are thermodynamically cold, substantial X-ray emission from 10-100 MK plasmas is present. In low mass pre-main sequence stars, X-rays are produced by violent magnetic reconnection…
X-ray observatories contribute fundamental advances in Solar System studies by probing Sun-object interactions, developing planet and satellite surface composition maps, probing global magnetospheric dynamics, and tracking astrochemical…
The Chandra X-ray Observatory has completed a remarkable twenty years in orbit. A large part of the science program of Chandra during this time has involved the study of stars and their planetary systems. This primer aims to give the reader…
Recent X-ray observations have had a major impact on topics ranging from protostars to cosmology. They have also drawn attention to important and general physical processes that currently limit our understanding of thermal and nonthermal…
Whether it is fluorescence emission from asteroids and moons, solar wind charge exchange from comets, exospheric escape from Mars, pion reactions on Venus, sprite lighting on Saturn, or the Io plasma torus in the Jovian magnetosphere, the…
During the last few years our knowledge about the X-ray emission from bodies within the solar system has significantly improved. Several new solar system objects are now known to shine in X-rays at energies below 2 keV. Apart from the Sun,…
Magnetically active stars are the sites of efficient particle acceleration and plasma heating, processes that have been studied in detail in the solar corona. Investigation of such processes in young stellar objects is much more challenging…
Astronomical observations of flares from analogs of the early Sun have the potential to give critical insights into the high energy irradiation environment of protoplanetary disks. Solar-mass young stellar objects are significantly more…
X-ray emission from stars in the cool half of the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram is generally attributed to the presence of a magnetic corona that contains plasma at temperatures exceeding 1 million K. Coronae are ubiquitous among these stars,…
Low-mass young stellar objects are powerful emitters of X-rays that can ionize and heat the disks and the young planets they harbour. The X-rays produce molecular ions that affect the chemistry of the disk atmospheres and their…
Young stars show a variety of highly energetic phenomena, from accretion and outflow processes to hot coronal plasmas confined in their outer atmosphere, all regulated by the intense stellar magnetic fields. Many aspects on each of these…
X-ray and ultraviolet (XUV) emission from young stars plays a critical role in shaping the evolution of planetary atmospheres and the conditions for habitability. To assess the long-term impact of high-energy stellar radiation, it is…
A detailed understanding of the physics of star and planet formation requires study of individual objects as well as statistical assessment of global properties and evolutionary trends. Observational investigations of circumstellar material…
The characteristics of irradiated solar system planetary atmospheres have been studied for decades, consequently modern planetary science benefits from an exhaustive body of ground- and space-based data. The study of extrasolar planetary…
Interactions between the winds of stars and the magnetospheres and atmospheres of planets involve many processes, including the acceleration of particles, heating of upper atmospheres, and a diverse range of atmospheric loss processes.…
A decade of X-ray stellar observations with Chandra and XMM-Newton has led to significant advances in our understanding of the physical processes at work in hot (magnetized) plasmas in stars and their immediate environment, providing new…
Exoplanetary science is a very active field of astronomy nowadays, with questions still opened such as how planetary systems form and evolve (occurrence, process), why such a diversity of exoplanets is observed (mass, radius, orbital…
Over the past several decades, thousands of planets have been discovered outside of our Solar System. These planets exhibit enormous diversity, and their large numbers provide a statistical opportunity to place our Solar System within the…
This white paper is motivated by open questions in star formation, which can be uniquely addressed by high resolution X-ray imaging and require an X-ray observatory with large collecting area along good spectral resolution. A complete…