James Fecanin | Searcharxiv

arXiv2026

Detecting habitable exoplanet atmospheres with LIFE, the Large Interferometer for Exoplanets

A key goal of astronomers with the next generation telescopes is to detect signs of life in exoplanet atmospheres. NASA's next flagship is the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO). In the context of ESA's Voyage 2050 program, the Senior Committee report prioritises detecting habitable exoplanet atmospheres in the mid-IR. The most suited mission for this is the Large Interferometer for Exoplanets (LIFE) which can detect an even wider range of biosignatures than HWO and at lower concentrations. LIFE is a global science collaboration based out of ETH Z\"urich. With the UK's expertise in building infrared instruments we could play a leading role in realising an ambitious European-led mission. Notably, LIFE is able to detect necessary planetary context like surface temperature and pressure, along with a key discriminator molecule for biosignature false positives, methane, which will be much harder or impossible with HWO. Also, LIFE will be able to investigate many of the nearby rocky exoplanets known from radial velocity searches that are inaccessible to HWO due to its limited spatial resolution.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2026

Exploring the Impact of Tilted Magnetic Dipoles on the Atmospheric Dynamics of Hot Jupiters: Towards an Improved Magnetohydrodynamic Framework

The atmospheres of hot Jupiters lie in a dynamical regime without a solar system analogue. The strongly irradiated daysides reach temperatures sufficiently hot for substantial thermal ionization of atmospheric species, resulting in flows that can interact with the planetary magnetic field. These magnetic effects can significantly impact wind speeds, atmospheric temperatures, and large-scale circulation patterns. Previous work combining 3D atmospheric models and magnetic prescriptions has shown the impact of magnetic effects on temperature and velocity profiles are dependent on local atmospheric properties as well as the set of assumptions employed by the magnetic prescription. In this work, we examine a commonly employed magnetic model--a perfectly aligned dipole--in 3D General Circulation Models (GCMs) and extend this framework to allow for tilting of the deep-seated internal magnetic dipole field relative to the axis of rotation. We find that the inclusion of a tilted dipole introduces pronounced north-south asymmetries into the temperature profile leading to latitudinally shifted hotpots and deflection of winds that would otherwise be axially symmetric. We additionally simulate JWST/NIRSpec phase curves. We find that the strength of the magnetic field has the most significant effect on the simulated phase curves, with stronger magnetic fields increasing the amplitude of the phase curve and reducing the hot spot offset. Our model can provide qualitative insight into how the magnetic dipole strength or orientation may influence the large scale atmospheric dynamics and represents one of the most sophisticated incorporations of magnetic effects in GCMs for hot Jupiter atmospheres to date.

astro-ph.EP↗