Solar System Ice Giants: Exoplanets in our Backyard

TL;DR

This paper explores how studying our solar system's Ice Giants can inform remote sensing techniques for exoplanets, focusing on magnetic fields, magnetospheres, auroral emissions, and their implications for understanding exoplanetary systems.

Contribution

It highlights the importance of in-situ observations of Solar System Ice Giants to improve remote sensing and interpretation of exoplanet characteristics.

Findings

Magnetic field configurations reveal interior structures.

Auroral emissions can inform exoplanet observation strategies.

Solar System Ice Giants serve as vital laboratories for exoplanet research.

Abstract

Future remote sensing of exoplanets will be enhanced by a thorough investigation of our solar system Ice Giants (Neptune-size planets). What can the configuration of the magnetic field tell us (remotely) about the interior, and what implications does that field have for the structure of the magnetosphere; energy input into the atmosphere, and surface geophysics (for example surface weathering of satellites that might harbour sub-surface oceans). How can monitoring of auroral emission help inform future remote observations of emission from exoplanets? Our Solar System provides the only laboratory in which we can perform in-situ experiments to understand exoplanet formation, dynamos, systems and magnetospheres.