Magnetic fields impact the formation of low-mass stars and their planets, and contribute to setting adequate conditions for life to appear. They control the amount of material and angular momentum from which stars and their planets form and mature, and can save newborn close-in planets from falling into their host stars. Magnetic fields can also affect planets by eroding their atmospheres and limiting their habitability, while hampering at the same time their detectability. Our understanding of these issues is however limited and critically needs observational guidance.
NewWorlds addresses these forefront topics by exploiting SPIRou, a new state-of-the-art near-infrared spectropolarimeter / velocimeter integrated in our group in 2017 and installed in 2018 on the 3.6-m Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) in Hawaii. Since 2019, SPIRou has been carrying out two Large Observation Programmes, first the SPIRou Legacy Survey (SLS) then SPICE, directly related to NewWorlds' objectives and allocated 484 CFHT nights over the duration of the project.
With SPIRou, the SLS and SPICE, the dedicated NewWorlds team and collaborators unveiled unknown planets orbiting our closest stellar neighbors. NewWorlds also explored how stars and their planetary systems like our own Solar System form and evolve into maturity, and how magnetic fields contribute to their birth.
As recently illustrated by the Nobel Prized in Physics awarded to the discoverers of the first exoplanet, NewWorlds’ results, addressing the existence of other potentially habitable worlds around nearby stars as well as the mysteries of the origins of life in the Solar System, are of obvious interest for the general public.
