On Living with a Star: Updates from Heliophysics Research
The recent rash of 'habitable zone' exoplanet discoveries has
also been accompanied by new information relating to the planet-star
interactions. Do we really understand the consequences of these
for both the planets' evolution and their actual habitability?
With current spacecraft resources and related data analysis,
theory and modeling efforts, we have never been so knowledgeable
about how the Sun is affecting our own space environment. For example,
it is easy to go on-line and find the latest updates on solar
activity and model predictions for effects at the Earth. However,
efforts to make comprehensive physics-based simulations
of how solar influences affecting us are both generated and
coupled into other regions such as the atmosphere also reveal major gaps in our understanding.
Examples include our inability to reproduce the important coronal eruptions
known as CMEs with a sufficient level of physical detail to
predict even the most extreme events. In addition, the question
of whether planetary magnetic fields produce effective and important
'shields' from the space environment produced by the Sun continues
to be debated. The aim of this discussion is to provide a bit
of 'ground truth' pertinent to ongoing efforts to interpret our much
more distant planetary system counterparts.