Magnetohydrodynamic simulation assessment of a potential near-ultraviolet early ingress in WASP-189b

TL;DR

This study uses magnetohydrodynamic simulations to explore how star-planet interactions in the WASP-189 system could cause early ingress features observed in near-ultraviolet transits, highlighting the role of magnetic pileups.

Contribution

It demonstrates that magnetic pileups, rather than classical bow shocks, are likely responsible for early ingress signals in WASP-189b's NUV transits, based on MHD modeling.

Findings

Magnetic pileups can form ahead of the planet within five planetary radii.

Low stellar wind speeds favor NUV-detectable magnetic pileups.

Simulations show possible NUV absorption from shock cooling and pileup crossing.

Abstract

Ultra-hot Jupiters (UHJs) in close orbits around early-type stars provide natural laboratories for studying atmospheric escape and star-planet interactions under extreme irradiation and wind conditions. The near-ultraviolet (NUV) regime is particularly sensitive to extended upper atmospheric and magnetospheric structures. We investigate whether star-planet interactions in the WASP-189 system could plausibly account for the early ingress feature suggested by NUV transit fitting models. We analyzed three NUV transits of WASP-189b observed as part of the Colorado Ultraviolet Transit Experiment (CUTE), which employs a 6U CubeSat dedicated to exoplanet spectroscopy. To explore whether the observed transit asymmetry could plausibly arise from a magnetospheric bow shock (MBS), we performed magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations using representative stellar wind velocities and planetary atmospheric densities. During Visit 3, we identified an approximately 31.5-minute phase offset that is consistent with an early ingress. Our MHD simulations indicate that with a wind speed of 573 km s-1 and an upper atmospheric density of about 4.6e-11 kg m-3, a higher-density zone due to compression can form ahead of the planet within five planetary radii where the fast-mode Mach number falls below ~0.56, even without a MBS. Shock cooling and crossing time estimates suggest that such a pileup could produce detectable NUV absorption. Our results indicate that while MBS formation is feasible for WASP-189b, low stellar-wind speeds favor NUV-detectable magnetic pileups over classical bow shocks and enhance the potential detectability of early-ingress signatures.