Worlds Revealed Speaker Series: Magnetic Mayhem

Magnetic Mayhem: How Young Stars Make Life Difficult for Their Planets with Dr. Clara Brasseur In this talk, Dr. Clara Brasseur will explore the intense magnetic environments of young stars and how they dictate the survival of nearby worlds. While measuring a star’s surface is possible, mapping its hot outer atmosphere (the corona) is a much greater challenge. Dr. Brasseur will share how her team used the surface of AB Doradus (a young star similar to an infant version of our Sun) as a blueprint to build a 3D model of its corona. By comparing this model to real-world radio telescope observations, they confirmed the existence of a massive “magnetic bubble” stretching 8 to 10 times the star’s width. Dr. Brasseur will discuss the exciting implications for habitability: since many planets orbit directly inside these high-energy bubbles, their early exposure to this “magnetic mayhem” likely played a defining role in shaping their atmospheres and their potential to support life.