Dartmouth Events

Abstract: An astrosphere is the region surrounding a star which is "hollowed out" in the interstellar medium by its own stellar wind. The structure of the Sun’s astrosphere, known as the heliosphere, is a topic of thorough investigation, as it has profound impacts on Earth. However, a better understanding of the dynamics and structure of astrospheres outside the heliosphere may have important consequences in fields of study such as exoplanets and their environments. Measurements of stellar winds of cool stars are elusive, severely limiting the stellar parameters available for modeling astrospheres of other stars. We use the 3D magnetohydrodynamic code Athena++ to simulate the astrospheres of GK- and M-dwarfs based only on observable parameters of the host star. Several models for mapping stellar observables to dynamical parameters of the stellar wind are explored and tested to see their consequences on astrosphere structure.