SM051-0001
Magnetic Fields, Atmospheres, and the Connection to Habitability (MACH) – Using Team Science to Determine How Magnetic Fields Influence Habitability
Wednesday, 16 December 2020
Poster
Dave A Brain, University of Colorado at Boulder, Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, Boulder, CO, United States, William K Peterson, Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, Boulder, CO, United States, Ofer Cohen, Harvard-Smithsonian CfA, Cambridge, MA, United States, Thomas Cravens, University of Kansas, Physics and Astronomy, Lawrence, KS, United States, Kevin France, Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences, Boulder, CO, United States, Yoshifumi Futaana, IRF Swedish Institute of Space Physics Kiruna, Kiruna, Sweden, Mats Holmstrom, Swedish Inst Space Physics, Kiruna, Sweden, Lynn M Kistler, Univ New Hampshire, Durham, NH, United States, Yingjuan Ma, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States, Thomas Earle Moore, NASA Goddard Space Flight Ctr, Greenbelt, MD, United States, Laura M Peticolas, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States, Robin Ramstad, Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, United States, Kanako Seki, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan, Robert J Strangeway, Univ California, Los Angeles, CA, United States, Aline Vidotto, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland and Andrew W Yau, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada
Abstract:
Is a global magnetic field required for a planet to retain an atmosphere or be habitable at its surface? Answering this question requires expertise from a diverse set of communities, some of which have diverged from each other over the past several decades. For example, modelers and observers of the terrestrial magnetosphere have limited overlap and interaction with modelers and observers of unmagnetized planets or the giant planets in our solar system. There is relatively limited interaction between any of the above communities and those who study exoplanets, though efforts are increasing to bridge the solar system and exoplanet communities.
We describe a newly-formed NASA Heliophysics DRIVE Science Center selected to answer the central question of this session: “Do Habitable Worlds Require Magnetic Fields”. This Center, named MACH (Magnetic Fields, Atmospheres, and the Connection to Habitability) includes representatives from multiple sub-disciplines in Heliophysics, Planetary Science, and Astrophysics (including exoplanets). Over the next several years the Center will support activities related to analysis of spacecraft observations of planetary plasma interactions, modeling of the interaction of planetary atmospheres and magnetic fields with their space environment, and the construction of a theoretical framework for atmospheric escape and habitability that includes both magnetized and unmagnetized planets. The MACH Center will host a community-wide workshop in 2021 centered around this topic, and is seeking to grow their interactions with interested scientists from relevant disciplines.
