Magnetic fields are prevalent to protect environment from radiation on Earth like exoplanets near smaller stars. Because of these magnetic conditions, those planets become livable.

A study by a group of astronomers from the University of Washington, which included the interaction between planets and smaller stars along with planetary heating patterns, checked the possibility whether life is supported on planets with small star hosts.

Presence of magnetic field is very important as it protects against solar radiation and keeps the planet’s atmosphere unharmed; along with this it also protects any life forms present on the planet from excessive radiation.

There are so many favorable conditions that are set up by smaller stars. Firstly, they offer a tighter orbit for planets due to which the planet becomes livable. Secondly, greater gravitational pull is experienced on the planets with closer orbits. Because of the gravitational pull, such planets become tidally locked with the stars near to them.

Tidal locking occurs when one side of an astronomical body faces another, also called gravitational locking. Earlier, the team said tidal locked planets can lose their magnetic fields with time, but later on they said that nothing as such would happen.

Eventually, later on it was found that tidal locking can increase the effectiveness of planet’s magnetic field. In fact, when a planet’s layer is heated, it becomes better to separate the heat into different directions which actually cools down the core.

“These preliminary results are promising, but we still don’t know how they would change for a planet like Venus, in the future, exoplanetary magnetic fields could be observable, so we expect there to be a growing interest in this field going forward”, Peter Driscoll, lead author, said.

“The question I wanted to ask is, around these small stars, where people are going to look for planets, are these planets going to be roasted by gravitational tides?” lead author Peter Driscoll said.

“I was excited to see that tidal heating can actually save a planet in the sense that it allows cooling of the core. That’s the dominant way to form magnetic fields,” model creator Rory Barnes said.