Exploring Heliophysics in Our Solar System and Beyond: From Stellar Coronae to (Exo)Planetary Atmospheres
When
Where
Dr. Chuanfei Dong
Assistant Professor
Boston University
The exciting and rapidly growing frontier of heliophysics encompasses a wide spectrum of fields ranging from solar/stellar physics to space and planetary science. The turbulent solar corona constitutes a natural starting point - I will delineate the world’s largest magnetohydrodynamic simulation performed to explore the interplay between magnetic reconnection and magnetohydrodynamic turbulence and the former's striking ramifications for the turbulent energy cascade. I will then discuss how the solar wind and extreme space weather events interact with planets in our solar system by comparing magnetized Mercury and weakly magnetized Mars to highlight the unique aspects of each planet as well as some underlying universal features. In light of the increasingly interdisciplinary nature of heliophysics, I will also present how heliophysics in astrospheres has profound consequences for other fields, such as exoplanetary habitability.
Host: Dr. Kristopher Klein