Star-planet interactions as a research area examine the coupled physical processes between a star and its close-orbiting planets, emphasizing how stellar radiation, winds, and magnetic fields influence planetary atmospheres, magnetospheres, interiors, and orbital evolution, and how planets can in turn affect stellar activity and rotation. This field integrates stellar astrophysics, exoplanet science, plasma physics, and magnetohydrodynamics to study phenomena such as atmospheric escape, induced stellar flares, tidal dissipation, spin-orbit synchronization, and magnetic star-planet coupling. It relies on multiwavelength observations, numerical simulations, and theoretical modeling to constrain planetary habitability, system evolution, and the detectability of exoplanets through their signatures on host stars.
A new study has uncovered a connection between solar flares—sudden outbursts of radiation from stars—and short-term weather patterns on distant Earth-like planets.
Planetary Sciences
Jun 23, 2025
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If our solar system seems stable, it's because our short lifespans make it seem that way. Earth revolves, night follows day, the moon moves through light and shadow, and the sun hangs in the sky. But in reality, everything ...
Planetary Sciences
Jun 18, 2025
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57
Co-paired stars, or stars that travel together, can provide insights into processes that other stars can't. Differences in their brightness, orbits, and chemical composition can hint at different features, and scientists ...
Astronomy
May 22, 2025
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33
We tend to think of habitability in terms of individual planets and their potential to host life. But barring outliers like rogue planets with internal heating or icy moons with subsurface oceans created by tidal heating, ...
Planetary Sciences
May 12, 2025
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43
Observations from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope have provided a surprising twist in the narrative surrounding what is believed to be the first star observed in the act of swallowing a planet. The new findings, published ...
Astronomy
Apr 10, 2025
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189
A combination of cosmic processes shapes the formation of one of the most common types of planets outside of our solar system, according to a new study led by researchers at Penn State. The research team used data from NASA's ...
Astronomy
Mar 17, 2025
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28
The planet WASP-121b is extreme. It's a gas giant almost twice as big as Jupiter orbiting extremely close to its star–50 times closer than the Earth does around the sun. WASP-121b is so close to its star that tidal forces ...
Planetary Sciences
Mar 1, 2025
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80
At the 2025 Meeting of the American Astronomical Society, two teams of astronomers—centered at Penn State and MIT—independently announced new discoveries about an extreme form of planetary destruction: apparently rocky planets ...
Astronomy
Jan 23, 2025
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100
NASA supercomputers are shedding light on what causes some of the sun's most complex behaviors. Using data from the suite of active sun-watching spacecraft currently observing the star at the heart of our solar system, researchers ...
Astronomy
Nov 21, 2024
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