Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics – Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2011-01-04
Icarus, Volume 217, Issue 1, January 2012, Pages 88-102
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
31 pages, 10 figures, published in Icarus
Scientific paper
10.1016/j.icarus.2011.10.014
Planetary magnetic fields could impact the evolution of planetary atmospheres and have a role in the determination of the required conditions for the emergence and evolution of life (planetary habitability). We study here the role of rotation in the evolution of dynamo-generated magnetic fields in massive earth-like planets, Super Earths (1-10 $M_\oplus$). Using the most recent thermal evolution models of Super Earths (Gaidos et al. 2010; Tachinami et al. 2011) and updated scaling laws for convection-driven dynamos, we predict the evolution of the local Rossby number. This quantity is one of the proxies for core magnetic field regime, i.e. non-reversing dipolar, reversing dipolar and multipolar. We study the dependence of the local Rossby number and hence the core magnetic field regime on planetary mass and rotation rate. Previous works have focused only on the evolution of core magnetic fields assuming rapidly rotating planets i.e. planets in the dipolar regime. In this work we go further, including the effects of rotation in the evolution of planetary magnetic field regime and obtaining global constraints to the existence of intense protective magnetic fields in rapidly and slowly rotating Super Earths. We find that the emergence and continued existence of a protective planetary magnetic field is not only a function of planetary mass but also depend on rotation rate. Low-mass Super Earths ($M\lesssim 2 M_\oplus$) develop intense surface magnetic fields but their lifetimes will be limited to 2-4 Gyrs for rotational periods larger than 1-4 days. On the other hand and also in the case of slowly rotating planets, more massive Super Earths ($M\gtrsim 2 M_\oplus$) have weak magnetic fields but their dipoles will last longer. Finally we analyze tidally locked Super Earths inside and outside the habitable zone of GKM stars.
Cuartas-Restrepo Pablo A.
Zuluaga Jorge I.
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