Research on the exoplanet WASP-39b has uncovered the need to include stellar magnetic fields in models to match observations with theoretical predictions, significantly advancing exoplanet study accuracy. Credit: SciTechDaily.com’s size and other properties can be determined. In order to avoid mistakes, the star’s magnetic field is decisive.
But there is still one fly in the ointment: researchers have not yet succeeded in reproducing all the crucial details of the observations in model calculations. This stands in the way of an even more precise analyses of the data. In the new study led by the MPS, the authors, including researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology , the Space Telescope Science Institute , Keele University , and the University of Heidelberg , show a way to overcome this obstacle.
Researchers define a light curve as a measurement of the brightness of a star over a longer period of time. The brightness of a star fluctuates constantly, for example because its luminosity is subject to natural fluctuations. Exoplanets can also leave traces in the light curve. If an exoplanet passes in front of its star as seen by an observer, it dims the starlight. This is reflected in the light curve as a regularly recurring drop in brightness.
The researchers were also able to prove that the discrepancy between observational data and model calculations disappears if the star’s magnetic field is included in the computations. To this end, the team turned to selected data from’s Kepler Space Telescope, which captured the light of thousands and thousands of stars from 2009 to 2018. In a first step, the scientists modeled the atmosphere of typical Kepler stars in the presence of a magnetic field.
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