Related papers: Estimating Ion Escape from Unmagnetized Planets
This work presents an analysis of the ion outflow from magnetic reconnection throughout fully kinetic simulations with typical laboratory plasmas values. A symmetric initial configuration for the density and magnetic field is considered…
Data from the Voyager probes and the Interstellar Boundary Explorer have revealed the importance of pick-up ions (PUIs) in understanding the character and behavior of the outer heliosphere, the region of interaction between the solar wind…
We present measurements from the ESA/NASA Cluster mission that show in situ acceleration of ions to energies of 1 MeV outside the bow shock. The observed heating can be associated with the presence of electromagnetic structures with strong…
We study the interaction between the Moon and the solar wind using a three-dimensional hybrid plasma solver. The proton fluxes and electromagnetical fields are presented for typical solar wind conditions with different magnetic field…
The ion-sputtering (IS) process is active in many planetary environments in the Solar System where plasma precipitates directly on the surface (for instance, Mercury, Moon, Europa). In particular, solar-wind sputtering is one of the most…
Planetary embryos form protoplanets via mutual collisions, which can lead to the development of magma oceans. During their solidification, large amounts of the mantles' volatile contents may be outgassed. The resulting H$_2$O/CO$_2$…
Context. The atmosphere of exoplanets has been studied extensively in recent years, using numerical models to retrieve chemical composition, dynamical circulation or temperature from data. One of the best observational probes in…
Transit observations in Ly-alpha of HD209458b and HD189733b revealed signatures of neutral hydrogen escaping the planets. We present a 3D particle model of the dynamics of the escaping atoms, and calculate theoretical Ly-alpha absorption…
In applied forms of time-of-flight mass spectrometry utilizing ion storage devices prior to an analysis device, a non instantaneous electric ejection pulse applied in the region of ion storage is used to accelerate ions into the…
The solar wind (SW) and the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) radiation modulate fluxes of interstellar and heliospheric particles inside the heliosphere both in time and in space. Understanding this modulation is necessary to correctly interpret…
The equations of gas dynamics are extensively used to describe atmospheric loss from solar system bodies and exoplanets even though the boundary conditions at infinity are not uniquely defined. Using molecular-kinetic simulations that…
The long-term retention of substantial atmospheres in close-in exoplanets presents a major challenge to classical hydrodynamic escape theory, which predicts rapid mass loss under intense stellar irradiation. In this work, we propose a fully…
Tau Boo is an intriguing planet-host star that is believed to undergo magnetic cycles similar to the Sun, but with a duration that is about one order of magnitude smaller than that of the solar cycle. With the use of observationally derived…
The solar wind plasma is a fully ionized and turbulent gas ejected by the outer layers of the solar corona at very high speed, mainly composed by protons and electrons, with a small percentage of helium nuclei and a significantly lower…
The detection of hot atomic hydrogen and heavy atoms and ions at high altitudes around close-in extrasolar giant planets (EGPs) such as HD209458b imply that these planets have hot and rapidly escaping atmospheres that extend to several…
Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) are energetic storms in the Sun that result in the ejection of large-scale magnetic clouds (MCs) in interplanetary space that contain enhanced magnetic fields with coherently changing field direction. The…
An interplanetary (IP) shock wave was recorded crossing the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) constellation on 2018 January 8. Plasma measurements upstream of the shock indicate efficient proton acceleration in the IP shock ramp: 2-7 keV…
How the solar wind influences the magnetospheres of the outer planets is a fundamentally important question, but is difficult to answer in the absence of consistent, simultaneous monitoring of the upstream solar wind and the large-scale…
We present a method to measure the kinetic energy of electrons emitted upon ion impact via their time-of-flight. Pulsed beams of H$^{+}$, D$_2^{+}$, He$^{+}$ and Ne$^{+}$ ions with velocities between 0.4 and 3.5 a.u. are transmitted through…
To date, the ability for observers to reveal the composition or thermal structure of an exoplanet's atmosphere has rested on two techniques: high-contrast direct imaging and time-series observations of transiting exoplanets. The former is…