• Shashanka R. Gurumath

Articles written in Journal of Astrophysics and Astronomy

• Solar Wind Associated with Near Equatorial Coronal Hole

Present study probes temporal changes in the area and radiative flux of near equatorial coronal hole associated with solar wind parameters such as wind speed, density, magnetic field and temperature. Using high temporal resolution data from SDO/AIA for the two wave-lengths 193 Å and 211 Å, area and radiative flux of coronal holes are extracted and are examined for the association with high speed solar wind parameters. We find a strong association between different parameters of coronal hole and solar wind. For both the wavelength bands, we also compute coronal hole radiative energy near the earth and it is found to be of similar order as that of solar wind energy. However, for the wavelength 193 Å, owing to almost similar magnitudes of energy emitted by coronal hole and energy due to solar wind, it is conjectured that solar wind might have originated around the same height where 193 Å line is formed in the corona.

• Development of a Code to Analyze the Solar White-Light Images from the Kodaikanal Observatory: Detection of Sunspots, Computation of Heliographic Coordinates and Area

Sunspots are the most conspicuous aspects of the Sun. They have a lower temperature, as compared to the surrounding photosphere; hence, sunspots appear as dark regions on a brighter background. Sunspots cyclically appear and disappear with a 11-year periodicity and are associated with a strong magnetic field $(\sim 10^3$ G) structure. Sunspots consist of a dark umbra, surrounded by a lighter penumbra. Study of umbra–penumbra area ratio can be used to give a rough idea as to how the convective energy of the Sun is transported from the interior, as the sunspot’s thermal structure is related to this convective medium. An algorithm to extract sunspots from the white-light solar images obtained from the Kodaikanal Observatory is proposed. This algorithm computes the radius and center of the solar disk uniquely and removes the limb darkening from the image. It also separates the umbra and computes the position as well as the area of the sunspots. The estimated results are compared with the Debrecen photoheliographic results. It is shown that both area and position measurements are in quite good agreement.

• Metallicity of Sun-like G-stars that have Exoplanets

By considering the physical and orbital characteristics of G type stars and their exoplanets, we examine the association between stellar mass and its metallicity that follows a power law. Similar relationship is also obtained in case of single and multiplanetary stellar systems suggesting that, Sun′s present mass is about 1% higher than the estimated value for its metallicity. Further, for all the stellar systems with exoplanets, association between the planetary mass and the stellar metallicity is investigated, that suggests planetary mass is independent of stellar metallicity. Interestingly, in case of multiplanetary systems, planetary mass is linearly dependent on the stellar absolute metallicity, that suggests, metal rich stars produce massive (≥1 Jupiter mass) planets compared to metal poor stars. This study also suggests that there is a solar system planetary missing mass of ∼0.8 Jupiter mass. It is argued that probably 80% of missing mass is accreted onto the Sun and about 20% of missing mass might have been blown off to the outer solar system (beyond the present Kuiper belt) during early history of solar system formation. We find that, in case of single planetary systems, planetary mass is independent of stellar metallicity with an implication of their non-origin in the host star’s protoplanetary disk and probably are captured from the space. Final investigation of dependency of the orbital distances of planets on the host stars metallicity reveals that inward migration of planets is dominant in case of single planetary systems supporting the result that most of the planets in single planetary systems are captured from the space.

• # Journal of Astrophysics and Astronomy

Current Issue
Volume 40 | Issue 3
June 2019

• # Continuous Article Publication

Posted on January 27, 2016

Since January 2016, the Journal of Astrophysics and Astronomy has moved to Continuous Article Publishing (CAP) mode. This means that each accepted article is being published immediately online with DOI and article citation ID with starting page number 1. Articles are also visible in Web of Science immediately. All these have helped shorten the publication time and have improved the visibility of the articles.