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The hard life of exoplanets with young parent stars

Title：The hard life of exoplanets with young parent stars

Speaker: Fabio Favata

Special Time：4:00 pm Dec. 12th (Friday)

Tencent Meeting：954265052

Location: Lecture Hall, 3rd floor

Abstract：

Exoplanets cannot be considered in isolation, as they are born, grow and evolve around their parent star, that can be quite ebullient, in particular when young. Cool stars, i.e., F, G, K and M main sequence stars, around which exoplanets, in particular potentially habitable ones are born and evolve, are copious emitters of energetic radiation and particles (broadly grouped under “stellar activity”). The planet’s atmosphere is thus constantly bathed in a flux of energetic radiation, which may drive its physical and chemical evolution. 
Modeling the effect of stellar activity on planetary atmospheres is not trivial, not least because the stellar emission comes in bursts (“flares”), with the most intense flares being also very rare. Intense events can cause irreversible effects (e.g., erosion, but also chemical sequestration, etc.), so that basing the assessment of the impact of stellar activity on planetary atmospheres on the “quiescent”, or “average” activity level of stars can be very misleading.
We will discuss the energetic emission of active cool stars, in particular in its most extreme manifestations, and the various mechanisms through which the effects on planets can be dramatic, also affecting their habitability.

CV：

Fabio Favata is an astrophysicist who has done extensive research work in the field of the active stars and stellar formation, using mainly space based high-energy observatories, as well as ground-based telescopes. He obtained his degree in Physics from the University of Palermo (Italy) in 1985, following a period as research associate at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics,. In the course of his research career he published over 150 refereed papers  covering a range of topics, including stellar activity, stellar formation, Galactic structure, and Artificial Intelligence. His scientific production has received more than 7000 citations in the scientific literature.

He has worked from 1998 until 2023 for the Scientific Programme of the European Space Agency (ESA), initially as an active scientist, working at ESA’s technical center in the Netherlands. In 2008  he became responsible for the strategy, coordination and planning of the Scientific Programme of ESA, moving for a number of years to the Agency’s Headquarters in Paris, France. He was among other things responsible for defining the strategy of the Agency’s Scientific Programme, and for the interaction with the scientific community in Europe, with the 22 Member States of ESA and with the international partners (e.g., JAXA, NASA, Chinese Academy of Sciences, etc.).

He is currently a senior advisor to the International Institute of Space Science in Beijing (ISSI Beijing) and to the Institute of Space and Astronautical Sciences (ISAS-JAXA) in Japan. He is a research associate at the Italian National Astrophysics Institute, and holds a visiting position at Imperial College London, in the UK. He holds a PIFI fellowship from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

He is also working with a number of private companies in the field of space systems, in particular Blue Skies Space Ltd (BSSL) in London, UK.


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