论文标题

危险品。 viii。 K星的紫外线演变的光谱分析:K矮人旋转停滞在第一个Gigayear中的其他证据

HAZMAT. VIII. A Spectroscopic Analysis of the Ultraviolet Evolution of K Stars: Additional Evidence for K Dwarf Rotational Stalling in the First Gigayear

论文作者

Richey-Yowell, Tyler, Shkolnik, Evgenya L., Loyd, R. O. Parke, Jackman, James A. G., Schneider, Adam C., Agüeros, Marcel A., Barman, Travis, Meadows, Victoria S., Gibson, Rose, Douglas, Stephanie T.

论文摘要

发现和表征可居住区行星的努力主要集中在类似太阳的恒星和M矮人上。然而,K恒星在这两种替代方案之间提供了一个吸引人的折衷方案,这些替代方案相对尚未探索。了解此类恒星周围的紫外线(UV)环境对于我们对行星的理解至关重要,因为紫外线可以极大地改变行星大气的光化学。在这里,我们介绍了近紫外和Far-uv \ textit {Hubble Space望远镜}的宇宙起源光谱仪观测值39 k恒星在三个不同的年龄上:40 Myr,650 Myr和$ \ $ \ $ 5 gyr。我们发现K星(0.6-0.8 m $ _ {\ odot} $)UV通量在650 Myr以上保持恒定,然后按年龄按数量级掉落。这与早期的M星(0.3-0.6 m $ _ {\ odot} $)不同,后者仅在几百Myr后开始下降。但是,K恒星的旋转活性关系几乎与早期M恒星相同。这些结果可能是由于最近报道了K矮人的旋转停滞效应的结果,当k星的旋转周期达到$ \ $ \ $ 10 d时,k星的旋转停止了,而不是连续旋转的G恒星体验。这些结果表明,绕着K矮人旋转的系外行星可能会经历比想象的更强的紫外线环境,从而削弱了K星作为潜在的“超级可行”行星的主机。

Efforts to discover and characterize habitable zone planets have primarily focused on Sun-like stars and M dwarfs. K stars, however, provide an appealing compromise between these two alternatives that has been relatively unexplored. Understanding the ultraviolet (UV) environment around such stars is critical to our understanding of their planets, as the UV can drastically alter the photochemistry of a planet's atmosphere. Here we present near-UV and far-UV \textit{Hubble Space Telescope}'s Cosmic Origins Spectrograph observations of 39 K stars at three distinct ages: 40 Myr, 650 Myr, and $\approx$5 Gyr. We find that the K star (0.6 -- 0.8 M$_{\odot}$) UV flux remains constant beyond 650 Myr before falling off by an order of magnitude by field age. This is distinct from early M stars (0.3 -- 0.6 M$_{\odot}$), which begin to decline after only a few hundred Myr. However, the rotation-UV activity relation for K stars is nearly identical to that of early M stars. These results may be a consequence of the spin-down stalling effect recently reported for K dwarfs, in which the spin-down of K stars halts for over a Gyr when their rotation periods reach $\approx$10 d, rather than the continuous spin down that G stars experience. These results imply that exoplanets orbiting K dwarfs may experience a stronger UV environment than thought, weakening the case for K stars as hosts of potential "super-habitable" planets.

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