Stellar Forcing of (exo)Planetary Environments
Julián D. Alvarado-Gómez, Erika Palmerio, Manuel Güdel, Kosuke Namekata, Konstantin Herbst, N. Eugene Engelbrecht, Antoine Strugarek, Judy J. Chebly, Astrid Veronig, Maria D. Kazachenko, Krisztián Vida, Kristina G. Kislyakova, Katja Poppenhäger, Antonio García-Muñoz, Yuta Notsu, Harish K. Vedantham
Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam · Predictive Science Inc · ASTRON · NASA Goddard Space Flight Center · Centre for Planetary Habitability · National Institute for Theoretical and Computational Physics · Université Paris-Saclay · Université Paris-Saclay · Kanzelhöhe Observatory for Solar and Environmental Research · University of Colorado Boulder · Konkoly Observatory · University of Vienna · University of Potsdam · Université Paris-Saclay · University of Colorado Boulder · ASTRON
astro-ph.SR, astro-ph.EP
Submitted: 2026-07-01
Comments: 132 Pages, 47 Figures, 8 Tables, Submitted to Space Science Reviews, Abstract shortened for arXiv compliance
Code: https://github.com/RDStrauss/SEP
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
The gist: The environments of exoplanets are fundamentally shaped by the magnetic activity of their host stars through radiative, plasma, and particle-driven processes.
Terminology
Abstract
The environments of exoplanets are fundamentally shaped by the magnetic activity of their host stars through radiative, plasma, and particle-driven processes. This article presents a comprehensive overview of the four principal forms of stellar forcing that regulate atmospheric structure, chemistry, escape, and long-term planetary evolution: high-energy radiation, magnetized stellar winds, coronal mass ejections, and energetic particles. Using the Sun as a physically resolved benchmark, the discussion extends to increasingly active cool stars to establish a broader picture of star--planet interactions across the main sequence. The article first examines stellar X-ray and extreme ultraviolet emission from chromospheres and coronae, together with variability introduced by flares and magnetic reconnection. Particular attention is given to spectroscopic diagnostics, activity scalings with stellar rotation and age, flare energetics, and the observational links between impulsive and gradual phases of magnetic energy release. The treatment then shifts to magnetized stellar winds, describing the mechanisms that drive them and the role of multidimensional magnetohydrodynamic modeling in determining wind structure, angular momentum loss, and planetary interaction regimes. Solar and stellar coronal mass ejections are explored through their diagnostics, flare associations, propagation, and possible suppression by strong stellar magnetic fields. Finally, galactic and stellar energetic particles are discussed together with methods for estimating particle environments and their consequences for atmospheric chemistry and climate. The article concludes by outlining future observational and numerical developments needed to connect these coupled stellar forcing processes within a unified exoplanetary framework.
Sources
- Spectroscopic analysis of a super-hot giant flare observed on Algol by BeppoSAX on 30 August 1997
- Analysis of HST, VLT and Gemini coordinated observations of Uranus late 2017 : a multi-spectral search for auroral signatures
- Hunting for stellar coronal mass ejections
- Modelling the Corona of HD 189733 in 3D
Related papers
- HXI-DLA2: A Physics-Constrained Deep Learning Algorithm for the ASO-S Hard X-ray Imager
- Effect of Neutron Star Jets on Common Envelope Evolution
- Constraining the origin of magnetic white dwarfs
- JW-FD: A 15-Year Multimodal Dataset for Solar Flare Forecasting
- Phlegethon: a fully compressible magnetohydrodynamic code for simulations in stellar astrophysics
- Can MHD Oscillations Modulate Quasi-Periodic Plasma Release from Coronal Streamers?