Related papers: Solar wind origin of terrestrial water
The rate at which the solar wind extracts angular momentum from the Sun has been predicted by theoretical models for many decades, and yet we lack a conclusive measurement from in-situ observations. In this letter we present a new estimate…
When observed at 1 AU, slow solar wind is typically considered to have originated in source regions with magnetic topologies that are intermittently open to the heliosphere. Fast wind is typically considered to have originated in source…
Water is an important component of exoplanets, with its distribution, i.e., whether at the surface or deep inside, fundamentally influencing the planetary properties. The distribution of water in most exoplanets is determined by yet-unknown…
Hydrodynamical simulations played an important role in understanding the dynamics and shaping of planetary nebulae in the past century. However, hydrodynamical simulations were just a first order approach. The new millennium arrived with…
Nitrogen is the most common element in Earth's atmosphere and also appears to be present in significant amounts in the mantle. However, its long-term cycling between these two reservoirs remains poorly understood. Here a range of biotic and…
Calculations are made of the energy supplied to the solar wind by the rapid decay of density fluctuations, identified as ion acoustic waves. It is shown that this process supplies an appreciable fraction, perhaps nearly all, of the observed…
Stellar rotation at early ages plays a crucial role in the survival of primordial atmospheres around Earth-mass exoplanets. Earth-like planets orbiting fast-rotating stars may undergo complete photoevaporation within the first few hundred…
The origins of the hot solar corona and the supersonically expanding solar wind are still the subject of much debate. This paper summarizes some of the essential ingredients of realistic and self-consistent models of solar wind…
Most studies suggest the pollution of white dwarf (WD) atmospheres arises from accretion of minor planets, but the exact properties of polluting material, and in particular the evidence for water in some cases are not yet understood. Here…
The origin of switchbacks in the solar wind is discussed in two classes of theory that differ in the location of the source being either in the transition region near the Sun or in the solar wind, itself. The two classes of theory differ in…
Properties of the solar wind are discussed and applied to the effect of the wind on motion of bodies in the Solar System. The velocity density function for the solar wind constituents is given by the $\kappa-$distribution. The relevant…
By plotting empirical chemical element abundances on Earth relative to the Sun and normalized to silicon versus their first ionization potentials, we confirm the existence of a correlation reported earlier. To explain this, we develop a…
Looking at the Mars-solar wind interaction on a larger spatial scale than the near Mars region, the planet can be seen as an ion source interacting with the solar wind, in many ways like a comet, but with a smaller ion source region. Here…
The most promising model for explaining the origin of solar magnetism is the flux transport dynamo model, in which the toroidal field is produced by differential rotation in the tachocline, the poloidal field is produced by the…
Studying the ambient solar wind, a continuous pressure-driven plasma flow emanating from our Sun, is an important component of space weather research. The ambient solar wind flows in interplanetary space determine how solar storms evolve…
The steady, supersonic outflow from the Sun we call the solar wind was first posited in the 1950s and initial theories rightly linked the acceleration of the wind to the existence of the million-degree solar corona. Still today, the wind…
Standard solar models predict a solar luminosity that gradually increased by about 30% over the past 4.5 billion years. Under the faint sun, Earth should have been frozen solid for most of its existence. Yet, running water is observed to…
The concept of energy balance is a key one in climate science. Yet, students may find it counterintuitive: while it is obvious that some energy comes in from the sun, the part coming out is more elusive. Asking them why the earth is not…
The galactic magnetic field is commonly supposed to be due to a dynamo acting on some large scale seed field. A major difficulty with this idea is that estimates of reasonable seed field strengths tend to be quite low, on the order of…
Most observations of polluted white dwarf atmospheres are consistent with accretion of water depleted planetary material. Among tens of known cases, merely two cases involve accretion of objects that contain a considerable mass fraction of…