Art News

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics Uses Computer Models to Study Exoplanet Auroras

CAMBRIDGE, MA.- Earth’s aurorae, or Northern and Southern Lights, provide a dazzling light show to people living in the polar regions. Shimmering curtains of green and red undulate across the sky like a living thing. New research shows that aurorae on distant “hot Jupiters” could be 100-1000 times brighter than Earthly aurorae. They also would ripple from equator to poles (due to the planet’s proximity to any stellar eruptions), treating the entire planet to an otherworldly spectacle. “I’d love to get a reservation on a tour to see these aurorae!” said lead author Ofer Cohen, a SHINE-NSF postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA). Earth’s aurorae are created when energetic particles from the Sun slam into our planet’s magnetic field. The field guides solar particles toward the poles, where they smash into Earth’s atmosphere, causing air molecules to glow like a neon sign. The same proce