💫 Projet Summary

Since the discovery of 51 Peg b (Mayor & Queloz, 1995), research in exoplanetary science has expanded rapidly. Thousands of exoplanets have been identified, transforming our understanding of planetary formation and evolution. Despite this progress, the magnetic properties of exoplanets remain largely unconstrained. Planetary magnetism plays a critical role in atmospheric retention and habitability, as shown by Earth. The SKA Observatory will enable the first detections of magnetospheric radio emissions from exoplanets. Such signals, and star–planet magnetic interactions, offer indirect probes of exoplanetary magnetism. However, the lack of comprehensive theoretical models limits quantitative interpretation of these observations. ExoMagnets will address these gaps by modelling magnetic coupling and energy transfer in star–planet systems. We will predict their multi-wavelength observables and constrain magnetic field strengths in short-period planets. This framework will provide the first unified theory to characterise exoplanetary magnetism across diverse systems.

🎯 Goals

1. Develop the most advanced numerical simulations of star-planet magnetic interactions taking into account the complexity of planetary orbits, the non-axisymmetric structure of stellar environments, the atmospheric escape, and the electromagnetic response of the whole planetary magnetosphere.
2. Characterise the energy channeling from the vicinity of an exoplanet into the emission due to heating processes and non-thermal emissions from accelerated particles in the atmosphere of the host star.
3. Develop theoretical understanding and numerical simulations of dynamo action and induction within exoplanets on short-period orbit to assess the possible magnetospheric states allow the modelling of realistic star-planet magnetic interactions.

📗 Publications

Publication list

✨ Visualisations

Radio Emissions sites for HD 189733, HD 179949 and tau Boo

📊 Data

Data products for the radio emission predictions of Chebly et al (2025)

Team