Related papers: Shock formation around planets orbiting M-dwarf st…
Cool M dwarfs outnumber sun-like G stars by ten to one in the solar neighborhood. Due to their proximity, small size, and low mass, M-dwarf stars are becoming attractive targets for exoplanet searches via almost all current search methods.…
A significant fraction of OB-type, main-sequence massive stars are classified as runaway and move supersonically through the interstellar medium (ISM). Their strong stellar winds interact with their surroundings where the typical strength…
We assess the multi-wavelength observable properties of the bow shock around a runaway early type star using a combination of hydrodynamical modelling, radiative transfer calculations and synthetic imaging. Instabilities associated with the…
Many stars across all classes possess strong enough magnetic fields to influence dynamical flow of material off the stellar surface. For the case of massive stars (O and B types), about 10\% of them harbour strong, globally ordered (mostly…
We study the magnetospheric structure and the ionospheric Joule Heating of planets orbiting M-dwarf stars in the habitable zone using a set of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) models. The stellar wind solution is used to drive a model for the…
We characterize the nature of magnetic structures in the foreshock region of Mars associated with discontinuities in the solar wind. The structures form at the upstream edge of moving foreshocks caused by slow rotations in the…
Both stars and planets can lose mass through an expansive wind outflow, often constrained or channeled by magnetic fields that form a surrounding magnetosphere. The very strong winds of massive stars are understood to be driven by…
We perform three-dimensional numerical simulations of stellar winds of early-M dwarf stars. Our simulations incorporate observationally reconstructed large-scale surface magnetic maps, suggesting that the complexity of the magnetic field…
Magnetic switchbacks are large amplitude deflections of the magnetic field within the solar wind. They are Alfv\'enic in character and so are associated with a spike in velocity and a generally small variation in local plasma density. Early…
The interaction of high-velocity neutron stars with the interstellar medium produces bow shock nebulae, where the relativistic neutron star wind is confined by ram pressure. We present multi-wavelength observations of the Guitar Nebula,…
While the recent microlensing discoveries of super-Earths orbiting two M dwarf stars have been taken as support for the core accretion mechanism of giant planet formation, we show here that these planets could also have been formed by the…
The role of radiative cooling during the evolution of a bow shock was studied in laboratory-astrophysics experiments that are scalable to bow shocks present in jets from young stellar objects. The laboratory bow shock is formed during the…
Terrestrial planets are more likely to be detected if they orbit M dwarfs due to the favorable planet/star size and mass ratios. However, M dwarf habitable zones are significantly closer to the star than the one around our Sun, which leads…
We investigate the effect of the magnetic fields of M dwarf (dM) stars on potentially habitable Earth-like planets. These fields can reduce the size of planetary magnetospheres to such an extent that a significant fraction of the planet's…
The magnetic field produced by planets with active dynamos, like the Earth, can exert sufficient pressure to oppose supersonic stellar wind plasmas, leading to the formation of a standing bow shock upstream of the magnetopause, or…
Pulsars have mean space velocities >~500 km/s. The consequent ram pressure results in tight confinement of the star's energetic wind, driving a bow shock into the surrounding medium. Pulsar bow shocks have long been regarded as a curiosity,…
Stellar bow shocks are formed when an outflow interacts with the interstellar medium. In white dwarfs accreting from a binary companion, outflows are associated with either strong winds from the donor star, the accretion disk, or a…
M dwarf stars are currently the main targets in searches for potentially habitable planets. However, their winds have been suggested to be harmful to planetary atmospheres. Here, in order to better understand the winds of M dwarfs and also…
High-resolution IRAS maps are used to search for the presence of stellar-wind bow-shocks around high-mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs). Their high space velocities, recently confirmed with Hipparcos observations, combined with their strong…
Foreshock disturbances -- large-scale (~1000 km to >30,000 km), transient (~5-10 per day - lasting ~10s of seconds to several minutes) structures [1,2] - generated by suprathermal (>100 eV to 100s of keV) ions [3,4] arise upstream of…