Stellar Activity and Coronal Heating: an overview of recent results

TL;DR

This paper reviews recent observational and theoretical advances in understanding stellar magnetic activity and coronal heating, highlighting how stellar studies complement solar observations to elucidate the processes behind outer atmosphere heating.

Contribution

It provides an overview of recent results on stellar magnetic fields and coronae, emphasizing their role in understanding activity and coronal heating in late-type stars.

Findings

Stellar observations extend understanding of coronal heating across different stellar ages.

Recent studies link stellar magnetic fields to coronal activity levels.

Insights into the evolution of solar X-ray activity are discussed.

Abstract

Observations of the coronae of the Sun and of solar-like stars provide complementary information to advance our understanding of stellar magnetic activity, and of the processes leading to the heating of their outer atmospheres. While solar observations allow us to study the corona at high spatial and temporal resolution, the study of stellar coronae allows us to probe stellar activity over a wide range of ages and stellar parameters. Stellar studies therefore provide us with additional tools for understanding coronal heating processes, as well as the long-term evolution of solar X-ray activity. We discuss how recent studies of stellar magnetic fields and coronae contribute to our understanding of the phenomenon of activity and coronal heating in late-type stars.