2019/03/06 by Sarah R. N. McIntyre, Charles H. Lineweaver, Michael J. Ireland +1 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Astro and Planetary Science #Astrobiology #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Circumstellar habitable zone #Condensed matter physics #Dipole #Exoplanet #Habitability #Magnetic dipole #Magnetism #Physics #Planet #Planetary habitability #Planetary system #Solar System #Solar and Space Plasma Dynamics #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph.EP
paper · pdf · doi:10.1093/mnras/stz667
published as MNRAS. 485 (2019), Issue 3, pp. 3999 - 4012 · Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 14 pages, 4 figures
openalex publication_date 2019/03/06 · arxiv created 2019/03/07 · arxiv updated 2019/04/17 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Evidence from the solar system suggests that, unlike Venus and Mars, the presence of a strong magnetic dipole moment on Earth has helped maintain liquid water on its surface. Therefore, planetary magnetism could have a significant effect on the long-term maintenance of atmosphere and liquid water on rocky exoplanets. We use Olson and Christensen's (2006) model to estimate magnetic dipole moments of rocky exoplanets with radii Rp ≤ 1.23 R_⊕. Even when modelling maximum magnetic dipole moments, only Kepler-186 f has a magnetic dipole moment larger than the Earth's, while approximately half of rocky exoplanets detected in the circumstellar habitable zone have a negligible magnetic dipole moment. This suggests that planetary magnetism is an important factor when prioritizing observations of potentially habitable planets.